The Martins Of Cro' Martin, Vol. II (of II)

d superiority over all their counterfeits. Thus, your coat from Nugee's, your carriage from Leader's, your bracelet from Storr's, and your bonnet from Madame Palmyre, have all their own peculia

so much as the man of fashion. He is the very type of chic. To describe him you are driven to a catalogue of ne

ne; but no sooner had he perceived another, and that other one not known to him, than all the buoyant gayety of his manner was suddenly toned down into a quiet seriousness; while, taking

ce at Merl, who was endeavoring in a dozen unsuccessf

oduce him to yo

ear friend, o

Martin, impatiently, while he whisper

ome other day;

out waiting for reply, he said aloud, "Merl, I wish to present

Lordship, with a bland smile and a very

Baden two summers ago," said the Jew, with an

the time you mentio

ip's game with great attenti

at such was the fact, or that he desired it should be thought so;

ge-et-noir can do anything,

Martin to Willoughby, and without paying

again. Hecuba is rising hourly, and s

hip's horse?" said t

nd continued to wri

ing was eleven to one

e fourteen to

, my Lord, just for the sake of

m steadfastly for a second or two. "I have

rd; you merely thought that they w

Martin, as he applied alight to his meers

aid Lord Claude, pencil in

t it, just as I said, to give me

rcle' after that?" whispered Ma

on't, here 's one that will. That's a neat phaeton of Cavendish's." And at the

a handsome phaeton. "It's worth five hundred pounds to any fellow starting an equipage to chance upon one of

ry neatly," s

that near-side horse?-a t

ewd-looking man of about five-and-thirty, who entered the room with great affectation of juve

oncern yesterday to Damre-mo

whether he gave seventy thousand for the equipage or nothing. It was

d here, Mr. Merl, Sir Spencer Cavendish." And the baronet stuck his glass in his eye

up, Claude?" whisper

fancy; or a

with the hell in St. James's Stre

ck to find such a turn-out as that in the mark

nd all,-everything except that Skye terrier. You shall have t

rested his words, and he added, after a moment,-"Bu

o objection," said Martin. But the baronet's face

de Boulogne, Merl," said Martin,

s own price after the trial," mutte

Cavendish; "for, assuredly, I should

-if he would permit his groom to drive me j

telligible than common observers might have imagined, for it conveyed something like recogni

ng with an almost schoolboy enjoyment of a trick. "And don't lose time, Merl, for

said Cavendish, as soon as Merl had quitted the room. "If t

roke in Martin;

. "If I were in his place, there's on

tha

day-one would be enough-from the B

ntertaining," said Cavendish, tartly; "but w

r, I fancy," sa

nd on equitable terms on approved personal security?" sa

in your hands at sixty per cent interest, i

ee him now. Oh dear, if any man, three years back, had told me that this fellow would have proposed seating

m, then?" sa

e sold cigars, another vended maraschino; this discounted your bills, that took your plate or your horses-ay, or your wardrobe-on a bill of sale, and handed you o

"he 's not a hard fellow to deal with; h

vendish, "till the final moment. It's only in adjusting the

aid Willoughby, who saw a sudden

a bitter effort at a laugh

shape and lustre of his admirably fitting boots. "One begins by some trumpery loan or so; thence you go on

d to be put up for the

the 'Cercle,

Is it so v

eputations, and no reputations; but remember, Martin, that however black they b

oes not make the

one that this is impossible, and that if you should do it to-day, I should follow the lead to

by a white ball in the ballot-box, nor do I think that Mr. Merl would relinquish his claim on

the mistake of esteeming them as a kind of philosophers in life, without any of those detracting influences that make you and Willoughby, and even myself, sometimes rash and headstrong. It is a mistake, though; they have a weakness,-and a terrible weakness,-which is, their passion to be though

e him admission into

e him along with you to her Grace's 'tea,' or my Lady's reception this evening, and see if the manner of the mistress of the house does not assign him his place, as certainly as if he were marshalled to it by a

as he can be in anything," said Willoug

t of a pledge. He is not easily put off;

troduce him at the Embassy.

in, angrily. "I ask for advice, and

n the phaeton. Just see how contemptuously he looks down on the foot-travellers. I'd lay on ano

Sir Spencer's taste in horsefl

ice hacks;

near horse is by Tiger out of a Crescent mare, and the off one won the Act

id Merl; "and remarked, moreover, that the large horse had

nd's name better," said Cavendis

ck Massingbred; he's the Mem

ed Cavendish, "how

in, who had a secret suspicion that it was n

's neat.

Please to let me inform you that full-blooded horses are not calle

, and after a moment's struggle,

Spencer," said Merl, who accepted the baron

ult between us. Good-bye, Martin; adieu, Claude." And with this brief leave-taking t

aid Lord Claude, in his blandest of voices, "you'd not be surprised at this l

htest accentuation of the "initial H," "and he was righ

ot ask him to second you at the Club?" said Martin

id n't exactly pull together; that there wa

ow that I never did," said Martin, calmly. "We are but slightly acquainted, it is t

treat him as an implacable enemy," said Lord Claude, with his accustomed suavity. "Besides, Mr. Merl, you know the crafty maxim of the French moralist, 'Always treat your enemies as though one day they were to become

ing it carefully after them. "So much for wanting to do a good-natured thing," cried he, peevishly. "I th

gs with him?" asked W

tune and future prospects. I don't think he is a bad fellow; I mean, I don't suspect he 'd press heavily upon me, with any fair treatment o

with. It is gone by entirely; and if you only present your friend-don't wince at the title-your friend, I say-as the rich Mr. Merl, the man who owns shares in mines, canals, and collieries, who

t the Club?" asked Martin, eagerly

ree to return to Mr. Merl in the drawing-room. That gentleman had, however, already departed, to the no small astonishment of Martin, w

or a lead mine, he accepted it at once, and, as Martin deemed, without the slightest knowledge or investigation, little suspecting that there was not a detail of his estate, nor a resource of his property, with which the wily Jew was not more familiar than himself. In fact, Mr. Merl was an astonishing instance of knowledge on every subject by which money was to be made, and he no more advanced loans upon an encumbered estate than he backed the wrong horse or bid for a copied picture. There is a species of practical information excessively difficult to descr

ent, the non-restored acceptances flitting about the world, sold and resold as damaged articles, but always in the end falling into the hands of a "most respectable party," and proceeded on as a true debt; then, the compromises for time, for silence, for secrecy,-since these transactions are rarely, if ever, devoid of some unhappy incident that would not bear publicity; and there are invariably little notes beginning "Dear Moses," which would argue most ill-chosen intimacies. These are all old stories, and the "Times" and the "Chronicle" are full of them.

decline to keep him company in his ponderings over them. All that his troubles had taught him was an humble imitation of the tricky natur