painted his beard and his eyebrows,
and had false teeth, and who, in spite of chronic absence of means,
always was possessed of clothes apparently just new from the hands of
a West-end tailor. He was one of those men who, through their long,
useless, ill-flavoured lives, always contrive to live well, to eat
and drink of the best, to lie softly, and to go about in purple
and fine linen,--and yet, never have any money. Among a certain
set Colonel Marrable, though well known, was still popular. He was
good-tempered, well-mannered, sprightly in conversation, and had not
a scruple in the world. He was over seventy, had lived hard, and must
have known that there was not much more of it for him. But yet he
had no qualms, and no fears. It may be doubted whether he knew that
he was a bad man,--he, than whom you could find none worse though
you were to search the country from one end to another. To lie, to
steal,--not out of tills or pockets, because he knew the danger; to
cheat--not at the card-table, because he had never come in the way
of learning the lesson; to indulge every passion, though the cost to
others might be ruin for life; to know no gods but his own bodily
senses, and no duty but that which he owed to those gods; to eat all,
and produce nothing; to love no one but himself; to have learned
nothing but how to sit at table like a gentleman; to care not at all
for his country, or even for his profession; to have no creed, no
party, no friend, no conscience, to be troubled with nothing that
touched his heart;--such had been, was, and was to be the life of
Colonel Marrable. Perhaps it was accounted to him as a merit by some
that he did not quail at any coming fate. When his doctor warned him
that he must go soon, unless he would refrain from this and that
and the other,--so wording his caution that the Colonel could not
but know and did know, that let him refrain as he would he must go
soon,--he resolved that he would refrain, thinking that the charms
of his wretched life were sweet enough to be worth such sacrifice;
but in no other respect did the caution affect him. He never asked
himself whether he had aught even to regret before he died, or to
fear afterwards.

There are many Colonel Marrables about in the world, known well to be
so at clubs, in drawing-rooms, and by the tradesmen who supply them.
Men give them dinners and women smile upon them. The best of coats
and boots are supplied to them. They never lack ciga