ay as well go," said Oaklands; "I like a positive
engagement somewhere--it saves one the trouble of thinking what one
shall do with oneself."

~161~~"You can accept it," replied I, "but it would be a waste of time
which I have no right to allow myself; not only does it make one idle
while it lasts, but the next day also, for I defy a man to read to any
purpose the morning after one of Lawless's symposia."

"Call it supper, my dear boy," returned Oaklands, stretching himself;
"why do you take the trouble to use a long word when a short one would
do just as well? If I could but get you to economise your labour and
take things a little more easily, it would be of the greatest advantage
to you;--that everlasting reading too--I tell you what, Frank, you are
reading a great deal too hard; you look quite pale and ill. I promised
Mrs. Fairlegh I would not let you overwork yourself, and you shall not
either. Come, you must and shall go to this party; you want relaxation
and amusement, and those fellows will contrive to rouse you up a bit,
and do you good."

"To say the truth," I replied, "that is one of my chief objections to
going. Lawless I like, for the sake of old recollections, and because he
is at bottom a well-disposed, good-hearted fellow; but I cannot approve
of the set of men one meets there. It is not merely their being what
is termed 'fast' that I object to; for though I do not set up for a
sporting character myself, I am rather amused than otherwise to mix
occasionally with that style of men; but there is a tone of recklessness
in the conversation of the set we meet there, a want of reverence for
everything human and divine, which, I confess, disgusts me--they seem to
consider no object too high or too low to make a jest of."

"I understand the kind of thing you refer to," answered Oaklands, "but I
think it's only one or two of them who offend in that way; there is one
man who is my particular aversion; I declare if I thought he'd be there
to-night I would not go."

"I think I know who you mean," replied I; "Stephen Wilford, is it not?
the man they call 'Butcher,' from some brutal thing he once did to a
horse."

"You're right, Frank; I can scarcely sit quietly by and hear that man
talk. I suppose he sees that I dislike him, for there is something in
his manner to me which is almost offensive; really at times I fancy he
wishes to pick a quarrel with me."

"Not unlikely," said I; "he has the reputation of bein