all. Fortune smiled on your youthful audacity. You grew particular in
horses and dress, frequented public haunts, and being a deuced good-
looking fellow, with an inborn air of gentility and some sort of
education, you became sufficiently well received to acquire in a short
time the manner and tone of a--what shall I say?--a gentleman, and the
taste to like suitable associates. This is my case too! Despite our
labours for the public weal, the ungrateful dogs see that we are above
them; a single envious breast is sufficient to give us to the hangman.
We have agreed that we are in danger; we have agreed to make an
honourable retreat; we cannot do so without money. You know the vulgar
distich among our set. Nothing can be truer,--

"'Hanging is 'nation
More nice than starvation!'

You will not carry off some of the common stock, though I think you
justly might, considering how much you have put into it. What, then,
shall we do? Work we cannot, beg we will not; and, between you and me,
we are cursedly extravagant! What remains but marriage?"

"It is true," said Clifford, with a half sigh.

"You may well sigh, my good fellow. Marriage is a lackadaisical
proceeding at best; but there is no resource. And now, when you have got
a liking to a young lady who is as rich as a she-Craesus, and so gilded
the pill as bright as a lord mayor's coach, what the devil have you to do
with scruples?"

Clifford made no answer, and there was a long pause; perhaps he would not
have spoken so frankly as he had done, if the wine had not opened his