Mr. Grinders was steward to Audley Egerton.

Mr. Levy was a handsome man, who wore a camellia in his button-hole;
drove, in his cabriolet, a high-stepping horse that had cost L200; was
well known to young men of fashion, and considered by their fathers a
very dangerous acquaintance.




CHAPTER XII.

As the company assembled in the drawing-rooms, Mr. Egerton introduced
Randal Leslie to his eminent friends in a way that greatly contrasted the
distant and admonitory manner which he had exhibited to him in private.
The presentation was made with that cordiality and that gracious respect,
by which those who are in station command notice for those who have their
station yet to win.

"My dear lord, let me introduce to you a kinsman of my late wife's" (in a
whisper),--"the heir to the elder branch of her family. Stanmore, this
is Mr. Leslie, of whom I spoke to you. You, who were so distinguished at
Oxford, will not like him the worse for the prizes he gained there.
Duke, let me present to you Mr. Leslie. The duchess is angry with me for
deserting her balls; I shall hope to make my peace, by providing myself
with a younger and livelier substitute. Ah, Mr. Howard, here is a young
gentleman just fresh from Oxford, who will tell us all about the new sect
springing up there. He has not wasted his time on billiards and horses."

Leslie was received with all that charming courtesy which is the /To