Rodney Stone

, it was furnished with the neatness and taste which belonged to his character, so that his most luxurious friends found something in the tiny rooms which made them discon

um which would have delighted a virtuoso. My uncle explained the presence of all these pretty things with a shrug of his shou

or us which increased rather than expl

in so abrupt a fashion, but something occurred during our journey from Friar's Oak to Brighton which left me without any possible alternative. I trust, however,

re going full-trot down hill in my curricle? I shall never find his match again either for chocolate or cravats. Je suis desolé! But now, nephew, we must send to Weston

turning round in front of them. Then, just as I had hoped that all was settled, in came young Mr. Brummell, who promised to be an even greater exquisite than my uncle, and the whole matter had to be thrashed out between them. He was a good-sized man, this Brummell, wit

uncle, "I thought you

my papers," dr

it would co

hey could hardly expect me to go to a place like

was t

observed that my post was always immediately in front of him. This saved a great deal of trouble. The other day, however, when I came on parade, I galloped up one line and down the other, but the deuce a glimpse could I get of that long nose

ll looked me up and down wit

and blue are always very gentlemanlike. But

," said my u

w me the right of my own judgment upon vests. I like it vastly as it st

g round me at the same time with their heads on one side and their glasses to

ake your faith in Sir Charles's judgment,

him that I

ecommendation to my care. But he would take no advice. At the end of the second week I met him coming down St. James's Street in a snuff-coloured coat cut by a country t

Sussex

h. I send my shirts two at a time, for if you send more it excites the woman and diverts her attention. I cannot

't hunt,

n. But surely you don't

th the Belvoi

t I shot his liver-coloured pointer, so he had to pay. But as to hunting, what amusement can there be in flying about among a crowd of greasy, galloping farmers? Every man to his o

been out

s monstrous impolite of him, but some people cannot lose with grace. Well, I am going down to Clarges Street to pay Jew King a little of my interest. A

polite in so polished a fashion. He has a half-smile, and a way of raising his eyebrows, for which he will be shot one of these mornings. Already his opinion is quoted in the clubs as a rival to my own. Well, every man has his day, and when I am convinced that mine

ream of life flowing between. Then we passed down the Strand, where the crowd was thicker than ever, and even penetrated beyond Temple Bar and into the City, though my uncle begged me not to mention it, for he would not wish it to be generally known. There I saw the Exchange and the Bank and Lloyd's Coffee House, with the brown-coated, sharp-faced merchants and the hurrying clerks, the huge horses and the busy draymen. It was a very different world this from that which we had left in the West-a world of energy and of strength, where there was no place f

here I met the same sort of men, with their stiff figures and small waists, all showing the utmost deference to my uncle, and for his sake an easy tolerance of me. The talk was always such as I had already heard at the Pavilion: talk of politics, talk of the King's health, talk of the Prince's extravagance, of the expected renewal of war, of horse-

were closed to wisdom and to virtue. The man who could enter a drawing-room walking upon his hands, the man who had filed his teeth that he might whistle like a coachman, the man who always spoke his thoughts aloud and so kept his guests in a quiver of apprehension, these were the people who found it easy to come to the front in London society. Nor could the heroism and the folly be kept apart, for there were few who could quite escape the

ers whose fame and eccentricities are even now not wholly forgotten in the world. The long, many-pillared room, with its mirrors and chandeliers, was crowded with full

an he is talking to is Sir Charles Bunbury, of the Jockey Club, who had the Prince warned off the Heath at Newmarket on account of the in-and-out riding of Sam Chifney, his jockey. There's Captain Barclay going up to them now. He knows more about training than any man alive, and he has wal

at, sir?" I asked

hrugged hi

he finest cellar of snuff in Europe. It was he who ordered his valet to put half a dozen of sherry by his bed and call him the day after to-morrow. He's talking to Lord Panmure, who can take his six bottles of claret and argue with

acant-looking man had stopped befor

ountry," he murmured. "He doesn't look as if he would

a few

s looking pretty bad. He'll be going into the country feet foremost

ized to the company for the shocking bad cooking. He thought he was at his own table, you see. It gives him a place of his own in society. That's Lord Harewood he has fastened on to now. Harewood's peculiarity is to mimic the Prince in everything. One day the Princ

. Brummell,

looks round the room from under his drooping eyelids, as though it were a condescension that he should have entered i

ng up with one or two other exquisites at his heels. "He has r

d Lord M

is to live with the young couple, and make a handsome allowance on condition that the bride sti

ould be a mistake to overwhelm one by a

ell. "Is it fair to break a dozen hearts in order to intox

sked one of h

des, it is necessary to go to Paris for your little things, and if there is

my sulphur-coloured gloves from the Palais Royal. When the war broke out in '93 I was cut off from them for nine yea

t-iron or a kitchen poker, but anyt

s nothing to match travel for expanding the mind. Last year, for example, I came upon some new waist-coating in the Square of San Marco, at Venice. It was yellow, wi

nce took

. It tells against me, but so it was. He often complains that things do not look as well upon him as upon me, b

I am surprised that you did not see me. I did not go past the

able débutantes. It always pleases me vastly when I am able to pass a compliment

uld see that the talk had been regarded as a contest between two men who were looked upon as rival arbiters of fashion. It was finished by the Marquis of Queensberry passing his arm through Brummell's and leading him off, while my uncle threw out his laced cambric shirt-front and shot his ruffles as if he were well satisfied with his share in the encounter. It is seven-and-forty yea

bles with small groups of men sitting round, while at one side was a longer one, from which there came a continuous murmur of voices. "You ma

vered quick, furtive grey eyes, and his gaunt features were hollowed at the cheek and temple like water-grooved fl

the deuce,"

ic

whi

get very hard

rick and a thousand on the rub, losing steadily

truck by the haggard loo

not very ba

about. By the way, Tregellis, have

N

time. It's play or pay, you know. I shall c

shall produce my man, Sir Lot

our weeks,

d. The 18

ve changed my

asked my uncl

sible that I ma

s?" cried my uncle, and I no

has proof that Avon died there. Anyhow, it is absurd to s

hat word, Sir Lothian,"

I was. You know tha

hat you shall

had to lower themselves before the imp

the title and the estates can remain hung up in this way for

His disappearance has not affected my love for him, and until his fate is final

," Sir Lothian answered, and then, changing his mann

ut we cannot alter the facts, and it is rather late in the day for us

tain

h me, and finally arrange the

They bowed, and my uncle stood a little time look

"A bold rider, the best pistol-shot i