Whose red nose makes me ashamed to be seen with him.

The line captures Pepys’s acute sensitivity to public appearance and social standing—recurring concerns in his Diary, where he often records embarrassment, vanity, and the management of reputation. The “red nose” suggests visible drunkenness, illness, or coarse living, and Pepys’s shame at being seen with the man reflects the period’s strong link between outward bodily signs and moral or social judgment. The remark also shows Pepys’s candid, sometimes uncharitable observational style: he notes small physical details as social liabilities, revealing how quickly companionship could become a matter of status and optics in Restoration London.