e knaves devour the fools, and younger brothers make up in wit for the
deficiencies of fortune.

The Honourable Mr. Blagrave came up to me; "Do you never play?" said he.

"Sometimes," was my brief reply.

"Lend me a hundred pounds!" rejoined my kind acquaintance.

"I was just going to make you the same request," said I.

Blagrave laughed heartily. "Well," said he, "be my security to a Jew,
and I'll be yours. My fellow lends me money at only forty per cent. My
governor is a d--d stingy old fellow, for I am the most moderate son
in the universe. I neither hunt, nor race, nor have I any one favourite
expense, except gambling, and he won't satisfy me in that--now I call
such conduct shameful!"

"Unheard-of barbarity," said I; "and you do well to ruin your property
by Jews, before you have it; you could not avenge yourself better on
'the governor.'"

"No, d--me," said Blagrave, "leave me alone for that! Well, I have got
five pounds left, I shall go and slap it down."

No sooner had he left me than I was accosted by Mr. Goren, a handsome
little adventurer, who lived the devil knew how, for the devil seemed to
take excellent care of him.

"Poor Blagrave!" said he, eyeing the countenance of that ingenious
youth. "He is a strange fellow--he asked me the other day, if I ever
read the History of England, and told me there was a great deal in
it about his ancestor, a Roman General, in the time of William the
Conqueror, called Caractacus. He told me at the last New-market, that
he had made up a capital book, and it turned out that he had hedged with
such dexterity, that he must lose one thousand pounds, and he might
lose two. Well, well," continued Goren, with a sanctified expression; "I
would sooner see those real fools here, than the confounded scoundrels,
who pillage one under a false appearance. Never, Mr. Pelham, trust to a
man at a gaming-house; the honestest look hides the worst sharper! Shall
you try your luck to-night?"

"No," said I, "I shall only look on."

Goren sauntered to the table, and sat down next to a rich young man,
of the best temper and the worst luck in the world. After a few throws,
Goren said to him, "Lord--, do put your money aside--you have so much
on the table, that in interferes with mine--and that is really so
unpleasant. Suppose you put some of it in your pocket."

Lord--took a handful of notes, and stuffed them carelessly in his coat
pocket. Five minutes afterwards I saw Goren insert his