Fate saved me a world of trouble; as I was hastily walking onwards, I
happened to turn my eyes on the opposite side of the way, and discovered
a man dressed, in what the newspapers term, the very height of the
fashion, namely, in the most ostentatious attire that ever flaunted at
Margate, or blazoned in the Palais Royale. The nether garments of this
petit maitre, consisted of a pair of blue tight pantaloons, profusely
braided, and terminating in Hessian boots, adorned with brass spurs of
the most burnished resplendency; a black velvet waistcoat, studded with
gold stars, was backed by a green frock coat, covered, notwithstanding
the heat of the weather, with fur, and frogged and cordonne with the most
lordly indifference, both as to taste and expense: a small French hat,
which might not have been much too large for my Lord of P--, was set
jauntily in the centre of a system of long black curls, which my eye,
long accustomed to penetrate the arcana of habilatory art, discovered at
once to be a wig. A fierce black mustacheo, very much curled, wandered
lovingly from the upper lip, towards the eyes, which had an unfortunate
prepossession for eccentricity in their direction. To complete the
picture, we must suppose some colouring--and this consisted in a very
nice and delicate touch of the rouge pot, which could not be called by so
harsh a term as paint; say, rather that it was a tinge.

No sooner had I set my eyes upon this figure, than I crossed over to the
side of the way which it was adorning, and followed its motions at a
respectful but observant distance.

At length my freluquet marched into a jeweller's shop in Oxford-street;
with a careless air, I affected, two minutes afterwards, to saunter into
the same shop; the shopman was shewing his bijouterie to him of the
Hessians with the greatest respect; and, beguiled by the splendour of the
wig and waistcoat, turned me over to his apprentice--another time, I