ecution. Sir Weeton Slater
tripped up to us with a mixed air of solicitude and restraint, asked
whether I was well, and whether I had seen the newspapers that morning;
and on my informing him that I had just come up from Riversley, on
account of certain rumours, advised me to remain in town strictly
for the present. He also hinted at rumours of prosecutions. 'The fact
is----' he began several times, rendered discreet, I suppose, by my
juvenility, fierte, and reputed wealth.

We were joined by Admiral Loftus and Lord Alton. They queried and
counterqueried as to passages between my father and the newspapers,
my father and the committee of his Club, preserving sufficient
consideration for me to avoid the serious matter in all but distant
allusions; a point upon which the breeding of Mr. Serjeant Wedderburn
was not so accurate a guide to him. An exciting public scandal soon
gathers knots of gossips in Clubland. We saw Wedderburn break from a
group some way down the pavement and pick up a fresh crumb of amusement
at one of the doorsteps. 'Roy Richmond is having his benefit to-day!' he
said, and repeated this and that, half audible to me. For the rest,
he pooh-poohed the idea of the Law intervening. His 'How d' ye do, Mr.
Richmond, how d' ye do?' was almost congratulatory. 'I think we meet at
your father's table to-night? It won't be in the Tower, take my word for
it. Oh! the papers! There's no Act to compel a man to deny what appears
in the papers. No such luck as the Tower!--though Littlepitt (Mr.
Wedderburn's nickname for our Premier) would be fool enough for that. He
would. If he could turn attention from his Bill, he'd do it. We should
have to dine off Boleyn's block:--coquite horum obsonia he'd say, eh?''

Jennings espied my father's carriage, and stepped to speak a word to
the footman. He returned, saying, with a puff of his cheeks: 'The Grand
Monarque has been sending his state equipage to give the old backbiting
cripple Brisby an airing. He is for horse exercise to-day they've
dropped him in Courtenay Square. There goes Brisby. He'd take the good
Samaritan's shilling to buy a flask of poison for him. He 'll use Roy's
carriage to fetch and carry for that venomous old woman Kane, I'll
swear.'

'She's a male in Scripture,' said Wedderburn, and this reminded me of an
anecdote that reminded him of another, and after telling them, he handed
round his hat for the laugh, as my father would have phrased it.

'Has her lady