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C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

A Misfortune in Orthography

By Samuel Foote (1720–1777)

From ‘The Lame Lover’

SIR LUKE—A pox o’ your law; you make me lose sight of my story. One morning a Welsh coach-maker came with his bill to my lord, whose name was unluckily Lloyd. My lord had the man up: “You are called, I think, Mr. Lloyd?”—“At your Lordship’s service, my lord.”—“What, Lloyd with an L?”—“It was with an L indeed, my lord.”—“Because in your part of the world I have heard that Lloyd and Floyd were synonymous, the very same names.”—“Very often indeed, my Lord.”—“But you always spell yours with an L?”—“Always.”—“That, Mr. Lloyd, is a little unlucky; for you must know I am now paying my debts alphabetically, and in four or five years you might have come in with an F; but I am afraid I can give you no hopes for your L. Ha, ha, ha!”