less extravagance of the nights at
Crockford's, the triumphs of the Derby, and the glories of Ascot, passed
all in review before him, heightened by the recollection of the high
spirits of his youth. He began once more to hanker after the world he
believed he had quitted without regret; and a morbid anxiety to learn
what was doing and going forward in the circles he used to move in took
possession of his mind. All the gossip of Tattersall's, all the
chitchat of the Carlton, all the scandal of Graham's, became at once
indispensable to his existence, Who was going it 'fastest' among the
rising spirits of the day, and which was the favourite of 'Scott's lot,'
were points of vital interest to him; while he felt the deepest anxiety
about the fortunes of those who were tottering on the brink of ruin, and
spent many a sleepless night in conjectures as to how they were to
get through this difficulty or that, and whether they could ever 'come
round' again.

Not one of the actors in that busy scene, into whose wild chaos fate
mixes up all that is highest and everything the most depraved of human
nature, ever took the same interest in it as he did. He lived henceforth
in an ideal world, ignorant and careless of what was passing around
him; his faculties strained to regard events at a distance, he became
abstracted and silent. A year passed over thus, twelve weary months,
in which his mind dwelt on home and country with all the ardour of a
banished man. At last the glad tidings reached him that a compromise had
been effected with his principal creditors; his most pressing debts had
been discharged, and time obtained to meet others of less moment; and no
obstacle any longer existed to his returning to England.

What a glorious thing it was to come back again once more to the old
haunts and scenes of pleasure; to revisit the places of which his
days and nights were filled with the very memory; to be once again the
distinguished among that crowd who ruled supreme at the table and on the
turf, and whose fiat was decisive from the Italian Opera to Doncaster!
Alas and alas! the resumption of old tastes and habits will not bring
back the youth and buoyancy which gave them all their bright colouring.
There is no standing still in life; there is no resting-place whence
we can survey the panorama, and not move along with it. Our course
continues, and as changes follow one another in succession without,
so within our own natures are we confor