made up
his mind to find out who and what Mr. Horatio Sparkins really was, first
broke silence.

'Excuse me, sir,' said that distinguished personage, 'I presume you have
studied for the bar? I thought of entering once, myself--indeed, I'm
rather intimate with some of the highest ornaments of that distinguished
profession.'

'N-no!' said Horatio, with a little hesitation; 'not exactly.'

'But you have been much among the silk gowns, or I mistake?' inquired
Flamwell, deferentially.

'Nearly all my life,' returned Sparkins.

The question was thus pretty well settled in the mind of Mr. Flamwell.
He was a young gentleman 'about to be called.'

'I shouldn't like to be a barrister,' said Tom, speaking for the first
time, and looking round the table to find somebody who would notice the
remark.

No one made any reply.

'I shouldn't like to wear a wig,' said Tom, hazarding another
observation.

'Tom, I beg you will not make yourself ridiculous,' said his father.
'Pray listen, and improve yourself by the conversation you hear, and
don't be constantly making these absurd remarks.'

'Very well, father,' replied the unfortunate Tom, who had not spoken a
word since he had asked for another slice of beef at a quarter-past five
o'clock, P.M., and it was then eight.

'Well, Tom,' observed his good-natured uncle, 'never mind! _I_ think
with you. I shouldn't like to wear a wig. I'd rather wear an apron.'

Mr. Malderton coughed violently. Mr. Barton resumed--'For if a man's
above his business--'

The cough returned with tenfold violence, and did not cease until the
unfortunate cause of it, in his alarm, had quite forgotten what he
intended to say.

'Mr. Sparkins,' said Flamwell, returning to the charge, 'do you happen to
know Mr. Delafontaine, of Bedford-square?'

'I have exchanged cards with him; since which, indeed, I have had an
opportunity of serving him considerably,' replied Horatio, slightly
colouring; no doubt, at having been betrayed into making the
acknowledgment.

'You are very lucky, if you have had an opportunity of obliging that
great man,' observed Flamwell, with an air of profound respect.

'I don't know who he is,' he whispered to Mr. Malderton, confidentially,
as they followed Horatio up to the drawing-room. 'It's quite clear,
however, that he belongs to the law, and that he is somebody of great
importance, and very highly connected.'

'No doubt, no doubt,' returned his companion.

The rem