uppose? bound
there myself--like to be found among my betters. Ha, ha--excuse a pun:
what odds on the favourite? What! you won't bet, Mr. Pelham? close and
sly at present; well, the silent sow sups up all the broth--eh!--"

"I'm not going to Newmarket," I replied: "I never attend races."

"Indeed!" answered Thornton. "Well, if I was as rich as you, I would
soon make or spend a fortune on the course. Seen Sir John Tyrrell? No!
He is to be there. Nothing can cure him of gambling--what's bred in
the bone, Good day, Mr. Pelham--won't keep you any longer--sharp shower
coming on. 'The devil will soon be basting his wife with a leg of
mutton,' as the proverb says--au plaisir, Mr. Pelham."

And at these words my post-boy started, and released me from my bete
noire. I spare my reader an account of my miscellaneous reflections on
Thornton, Dawton, Vincent, politics, Glanville, and Ellen, and will land
him, without further delay, at Chester Park.

I was ushered through a large oak hall of the reign of James the First,
into a room strongly resembling the principal apartment of a club; two
or three round tables were covered with newspapers, journals, racing
calendars, An enormous fire-place was crowded with men of all ages, I
had almost said, of all ranks; but, however various they might appear
in their mien and attire, they were wholly of the patrician order. One
thing, however, in this room, belied its similitude to the apartment of
a club, viz., a number of dogs, that lay in scattered groups upon the
floor. Before the windows were several horses, in body-cloths, led
or rode to exercise upon a plain in the park, levelled as smooth as a
bowling-green at Putney; and stationed at an oriel window, in earnest
attention to the scene without, were two men; the tallest of these was
Lord Chester. There was a stiffness and inelegance in his address which
prepossessed me strongly against him. "Les manieres que l'on neglige
comme de petites choses, sont souvent ce qui fait que les hommes
decident de vous en bien ou en mal."

[The manners which one neglects as trifles, are often precisely that by
which men decide on you favourably or the reverse.]

I had long since, when I was at the University, been introduced to
Lord Chester; but I had quite forgotten his person, and he the very
circumstance. I said, in a low tone, that I was the bearer of a letter
of some importance from our mutual friend, Lord Dawton, and that I
should request the ho