the extent of three or four days.

His great friend, Mrs. Manly--a lady who had jumped five feet, four
months before the birth of her sixth child--had said that his was a
'wasted life,' and the phrase, summing up what most people thought of
him, gained currency, and was now generally used whenever his conduct
was criticized or impeached. After having been in London, where he spent
some years in certain vague employments, and having contracted as much
debt as his creditors would permit, and more than his father would pay,
he had gone through the Bankruptcy Court, and returned home to drag
through life wearily, through days and weeks so appallingly idle, that
he often feared to get out of bed in the morning. At first his father
had tried to make use of him in his agency business, and it was
principally owing to Mr. Fred's bullying and insolent manners that Mr.
Scully was now unable to leave his house unless accompanied by police.

Fred was about thirty years of age. His legs were long, his hands were
bony, and 'stableyard' was written in capital letters on his face. He
carried a _Sportsman_ under his arm, a penny and a half-crown jingled in
his pocket; and as he walked he lashed the trousers and boot, whose
elegance was an echo of the old Regent Street days, with an ash-plant.

Such was the physiology of this being, and from it the psychology is
easy to surmise: a complete powerlessness to understand that there was
anything in life worth seeking except pleasure--and pleasure to Fred
meant horses and women. Of earthly honour the greatest was to be well
known in an English hunting country; and he was not averse to speaking
of certain ladies of title, with whom he had been on intimate terms, and
with whom, it was said, he corresponded. On occasions he would read or
recite poems, cut from the pages of the Society Journals, to his lady