t, viz. a
coffee-pot, a milk-jug, two cups, a broken loaf, and an empty dish,
mingled with a pack of cards, one dice, and an open book de mauvais
gout, stood immediately before him.

Every thing around bore some testimony of the spirit of low debauchery;
and the man himself, with his flushed and sensual countenance, his
unwashed hands, and the slovenly rakishness of his whole appearance,
made no unfitting representation of the Genius Loci.

All that I have described, together with a flitting shadow of feminine
appearance, escaping through another door, my quick eye discovered in
the same instant that I made my salutation.

Thornton rose, with an air half careless and half abashed, and
expressed, in more appropriate terms than his appearance warranted,
his pleasurable surprise at seeing me at last. There was, however, a
singularity in his conversation, which gave it an air both of shrewdness
and vulgarity. This was, as may before have been noted, a profuse
intermixture of proverbs, some stale, some new, some sensible enough,
and all savouring of a vocabulary carefully eschewed by every man of
ordinary refinement in conversation.

"I have but a small tenement," said he, smiling; "but, thank Heaven, at
Paris a man is not made by his lodgings. Small house, small care. Few
garcons have indeed a more sumptuous apartment than myself."

"True," said I; "and if I may judge by the bottles on the opposite
table, and the bonnet beneath it, you find that no abode is too humble
or too exalted for the solace of the senses."

"'Fore Gad, you are in the right, Mr. Pelham," replied Thornton, with
a loud, coarse, chuckling laugh, which, more than a year's conversation
could have done, let me into the secrets of his character. "I care not
a rush for the decorations of the table, so that the cheer be good; nor
for the gew-gaws of the head-dress, as long as the face is pretty--'the
taste of the kitchen is better than the smell.' Do you go much to Madame
B--'s ion the Rue Gretry--eh, Mr. Pelham?--ah, I'll be bound you do."

"No," said I, with a loud laugh, but internal shiver; "but you know
where to find le bon vin et les jolies filles. As for me, I am still a
stranger in Paris, and amuse myself but very indifferently."

Thornton's face brightened. "I tell you what my good fell--I beg
pardon--I mean Mr. Pelham--I can shew you the best sport in the world,
if you can only spare me a little of your time--this very evening,
perhaps?"