osed to Mr.
Wetherley, senior, who, after a short and warm interview with his son
Zephyr, inclosed it in turn to Whitloe himself; who smiled, and paid it,
and advised his wife to buy her own jewelry in future.

It was not pleasant for young Wetherley, and his friends in a similar
situation, to sit down to a night at cards with such a desperate player
as Abel Newt. Besides, his rooms had lost that air of voluptuous elegance
which was formerly so unique. The furniture was worn out, and not
replaced. The decanters and bottles were no longer kept in a pretty
side-board, but stood boldly out, ready for instant service; and whenever
one of the old set of men happened in, he was very likely to find a
gentleman--whose toilet was suspiciously fine, whose gold looked like
gilt--who made himself entirely at home with Abel and his rooms, and
whose conversation indicated that his familiar haunts were race-courses,
bar-rooms, and gambling-houses.

It was unanimously decreed that Abel Newt had lost tone. His dress
was gradually becoming flashy. Younger sisters, who had heard their
elders--who were married now--speak of the fascinating Mr. Newt,
perceived that the fascinating Mr. Newt was a little too familiar when
he flirted, and that his breath was offensive with spirituous fumes. He
was noisy in the gentlemen's dressing-room. The stories he told there
were of such a character, and he told them so loudly, that more than once
some husband, whose wife was in the neighboring room, had remonstrated
with him. Sligo Moultrie, during one of the winters that he passed in the
city after his marriage, had a fierce quarrel with Abel for that very
reason. They would have come to blows but that their friends parted them.
Mr. Moultrie sent a friend with a note the following morning, and Mr.
Newt acknowledged that he had been rude.

In the evening, at General Belch's, Abel was presented to all the guests.
Mr. Ele was happy to remember a previous occasion upon which he had had
the honor, etc. Mr. Enos Slugby (Chairman of our Ward Committee,
whispered Belch, audibly, as he introduced him) was very glad to know
a gentleman who bore so distinguished a name. Every body had a little
compliment, to which Abel bowed and smiled politely, while he observed
that the residence was much more comfortable than the office of General
Belch.

They went into the dining-room and sat down to what Mr. Slugby called "a
Champagne supper." They ate birds and oysters, a