n appearance and defend the suit, or take a trip to Abbott's
Priory; become a three months' student in the college of art, and
undergo the fashionable ceremony of white-washing."

"I begin to understand you now," said Bob, "and the only difference
between our two friends is, that one has willingly put on a chain for
life--"

"And the other may in all probability (continued Tom,) have to chaff his
time away with a chum--perhaps not quite so agreeable, though it really
is possible to be very comfortable, if a man can reconcile himself to
the loss of liberty, even in "durance vile."

By this time they were walking leisurely along Piccadilly,

"And marching without any cumbersome load,
They mark'd every singular sight on the road."

"Who is that meagre looking man and waddling woman, who just passed us?"
inquired Tallyho.

"An old Bencher," was the reply; "there you see all that is left of a
man of _haut ton_, one who has moved in the highest circles; but alas!
bad company and bad play have reduced him to what he now is. He has cut
up and turn'd down very well among the usurers and attornies; but it is
impossible to say of him, as of his sirloin of a wife (for she cannot be
called a rib, or at all events a spare rib) that there is any thing like
cut and come again. The poor worn-out Exquisite tack'd himself to his
Lady, to enable him to wipe out a long score, and she determined on
taking him for better for worse, after a little rural felicity in a walk
to have her fortune told by a gipsy at Norwood. He is now crippled in
pocket and person, and wholly dependent upon bounty for the chance of
prolonging a miserable existence. His game is up. But what is life but a
game, at which every one is willing to play? one wins and another loses:
why there have been as many moves among titled persons, Kings, Queens,
Bishops, Lords and Knights, within the last century, as there are in a
game at chess. Pawns have been taken and restored in all classes,
from the Sovereign, who pawns or loses his crown, to the Lady whose
reputation is in pawn, and becomes at last not worth half a crown.
Shuffling, cutting, dealing out and ~358~~ dealing in, double dealing
and double faces, have long been the order of the day. Some men's cards
are all trumps, whilst others have _carte blanche_; some honours count,
whilst others stand for nothing. For instance, did not the little man
who cast up his final accounts a short time back at