'Eh, Crotty, how goes it?' was the reply.

'You don't happen to know that gentleman yonder, my lord, do you?'

'Not I; who is he?'

'This gentleman and I were both anxious to learn who he is; he is losing
a deal of money.'

'Eh, dropping his tin, is he? And you 'd rather save him, Crotty? All
right and sportsmanlike,' said his lordship, with a knowing wink, and
walked on.

'A very bad one, indeed, I fear,' said Crotty, looking after him; 'but I
didn't think him so heartless as that. Let us take a turn, and look out
for Wycherley.'

Now, although I neither knew Wycherley nor his friend Crotty, I felt it
a case where one might transgress a little on etiquette, and probably
save a young man--he didn't look twenty--from ruin; and so, without
more ado, I accompanied my new acquaintance through the crowded salons,
elbowing and pushing along amid the hundreds that thronged there. Crotty
seemed to know almost every one of a certain class; and as he went, it
was a perpetual 'Comment ca va,' prince, count, or baron; or, 'How d'ye
do, my lord?' or, 'Eh, Sir Thomas, you here?' etc; when at length, at
the side of a doorway leading into the supper-room, we came upon the
Honourable Jack, with two ladies leaning upon his arms. One glance was
enough; I saw they were the alderman's daughters. Sir Peter himself, at
a little distance off, was giving directions to the waiter for supper.

'Eh, Crotty, what are you doing to-night?' said Jack, with a triumphant
look at his fair companions; 'any mischief going forward, eh?'

'Nothing half so dangerous as your doings,' said Crotty, with a very
arch smile; 'have you seen Wycherley? Is he here?'

'Can't possibly say,' yawned out Jack; then leaning over to me, he said
in a whisper, 'Is the Princess Von Hohenstauvenof in the rooms?'

'I really don't know; I 'm quite a stranger.'

'By Jove, if she is,' said he, without paying any attention to my reply,
'I 'm floored, that's all. Lady Maude Beverley has caught me already. I
wish you 'd keep the Deverington girls in talk, will you?'

'You forget, perhaps, I have no acquaintance here.'

'Oh yes, by Jove, so I did! Glorious fun you must have of it! What a
pace I 'd go along if I wasn't known, eh! wouldn't I?'

'There's Wycherley--there he is,' said Crotty, taking me by the arm
as he spoke, and leading me forward. 'Do me the favour to give me
your name; I should like you to know Wycherley'--and scarcely had I
pronounced it, when I found m