as dull of the brute, certainly,' said Mr Chester, 'and very like a
brute.'

Hugh made no rejoinder, but whistling to his dog, who sprung up at the
sound and came jumping and sporting about him, bade his sympathising
friend good night.

'Good night; he returned. 'Remember; you're safe with me--quite safe. So
long as you deserve it, my good fellow, as I hope you always will, you
have a friend in me, on whose silence you may rely. Now do be careful of
yourself, pray do, and consider what jeopardy you might have stood in.
Good night! bless you!'

Hugh truckled before the hidden meaning of these words as much as such
a being could, and crept out of the door so submissively and
subserviently--with an air, in short, so different from that with which
he had entered--that his patron on being left alone, smiled more than
ever.

'And yet,' he said, as he took a pinch of snuff, 'I do not like their
having hanged his mother. The fellow has a fine eye, and I am sure she
was handsome. But very probably she was coarse--red-nosed perhaps, and
had clumsy feet. Aye, it was all for the best, no doubt.'

With this comforting reflection, he put on his coat, took a farewell
glance at the glass, and summoned his man, who promptly attended,
followed by a chair and its two bearers.

'Foh!' said Mr Chester. 'The very atmosphere that centaur has breathed,
seems tainted with the cart and ladder. Here, Peak. Bring some scent and
sprinkle the floor; and take away the chair he sat upon, and air it; and
dash a little of that mixture upon me. I am stifled!'

The man obeyed; and the room and its master being both purified, nothing
remained for Mr Chester but to demand his hat, to fold it jauntily under
his arm, to take his seat in the chair and be carried off; humming a
fashionable tune.

Chapter 24

How the accomplished gentleman spent the evening in the midst of a
dazzling and brilliant circle; how he enchanted all those with whom he
mingled by the grace of his deportment, the politeness of his manner,
the vivacity of his conversation, and the sweetness of his voice; how
it was observed in every corner, that Chester was a man of that happy
disposition that nothing ruffled him, that he was one on whom the
world's cares and errors sat lightly as his dress, and in whose smiling
face a calm and tranquil mind was constantly reflected; how honest men,
who by instinct knew him better, bowed down before him nevertheless,
deferred to his ever