the information that Gentleman George would be most happy to see him in
the back-parlour, and that he would there find an old friend in the
person of Mr. Pepper.

"What! is he here?" cried Paul. "The sorry knave, to let me be caged in
his stead!"

"Gently, gently; no misapplication of terms!" said Augustus. "That was
not knavery; that was prudence, the greatest of all virtues, and the
rarest. But come along, and Pepper shall explain to-morrow."

Threading a gallery or passage, Augustus preceded our hero, opened a
door, and introduced him into a long low apartment, where sat, round a
table spread with pipes and liquor, some ten or a dozen men, while at the
top of the table, in an armchair, presided Gentleman George. That
dignitary was a portly and comely gentleman, with a knowing look, and a
Welsh wig, worn, as the "Morning Chronicle" says of his Majesty's hat,
"in a _degage_ manner, on one side." Being afflicted with the gout, his
left foot reclined on a stool; and the attitude developed, despite of a
lamb's-wool stocking, the remains of an exceedingly good leg.

As Gentleman George was a person of majestic dignity among the Knights of
the Cross, we trust we shall not be thought irreverent in applying a few
of the words by which the aforesaid "Morning Chronicle" depicted his
Majesty on the day he laid the first stone of his father's monument to
the description of Gentleman George.

"He had on a handsome blue coat and a white waistcoat;" moreover, "he
laughed most good-humouredly," as, turning to Augustus Tomlinson, he
saluted him with,--