I am sorry a man I have hitherto praised should have lent himself,
even in a whisper, to such a speculation; "but nobody is wise at
all hours," not even when the clock is striking five and twenty,
and you are to consider his profession, his good looks, and the
temptation--ten to three.

After Slough the party was reduced to three. At Twylford one lady
dropped her handkerchief; Captain Dolignan fell on it like a lamb;
two or three words were interchanged on this occasion. At Reading
the Marlborough of our tale made one of the safe investments of that
day; he bought a "Times" and "Punch"--the latter full of steel-pen
thrusts and woodcuts. Valour and beauty deigned to laugh at some
inflamed humbug or other punctured by "Punch." Now laughing together
thaws our human ice; long before Swindon it was a talking-match;
at Swindon who so devoted as Captain Dolignan? He handed them out,
he souped them, he tough-chickened them, he brandied and cochinealed
one, and he brandied and burnt-sugared the other; on their return
to the carriage one lady passed into the inner compartment to
inspect a certain gentleman's seat on that side of the line.

Reader, had it been you or I, the beauty would have been the
deserter, the average one would have stayed with us till all was
blue, ourselves included; not more surely does our slice of bread
and butter, when it escapes from our hand, revolve it ever so often,
alight face downward on the carpet. But this was a bit of a fop,
Adonis, dragoon, --so Venus remained in tete-a-tete with him. You
have seen a dog meet an unknown female of his species; how handsome,
how _empresse_, how expressive he becomes: such was Dolignan
after Swindon, and, to do the dog justice, he got handsome and
handsomer. And you have seen a cat conscious of approaching cream: