The extraordinary thing is, not that James II.

should have sold the women, but that William Penn should have bought them.

Penn's purchase is excused, or explained, by the fact that having a desert to sow with men, he needed women as farming implements.
Her Gracious Majesty made a good business out of these ladies.

The young sold dear.

We may imagine, with the uneasy feeling which a complicated scandal arouses, that probably some old duchesses were thrown in cheap.
The Comprachicos were also called the Cheylas, a Hindu word, which conveys the image of harrying a nest.
For a long time the Comprachicos only partially concealed themselves.
There is sometimes in the social order a favouring shadow thrown over iniquitous trades, in which they thrive.