FOR HIS
NEGLECT.

Steeled with this cautious maxim, he guarded himself from their united
endeavours, in sundry subsequent attacks, by which his first conjecture
was confirmed, and still came off conqueror, by virtue of his
unparalleled finesse and discretion; till at length they seemed to
despair of making him their prey, and the count began to drop some hints,
importing a desire of seeing him more closely united to the views and
interest of their triumvirate. But Ferdinand, who was altogether
selfish, and quite solitary in his prospects, discouraged all those
advances, being resolved to trade upon his own bottom only, and to avoid
all such connexions with any person or society whatever; much more, with
a set of raw adventurers whose talents he despised. With these
sentiments, he still maintained the dignity and reserve of his first
appearance among them, and rather enhanced than diminished that idea of
importance which he had inspired at the beginning; because, besides his
other qualifications, they gave him credit for the address with which he
kept himself superior to their united designs.

While he thus enjoyed his pre-eminence, together with the fruits of his
success at play, which he managed so discreetly as never to incur the
reputation of an adventurer, he one day chanced to be at the ordinary,
when the company was surprised by the entrance of such a figure as had
never appeared before in that place. This was no other than a person
habited in the exact uniform of an English jockey. His leathern cap, cut
bob, fustian frock, flannel waistcoat, buff breeches, hunting-boots and
whip, were sufficient of themselves to furnish out a phenomenon for the
admiration of all Paris. But these peculiarities were rendered still
more conspicuous by the behaviour of the man who owned them. When he
crossed the threshold of the outward door, he produced such a sound from
the smack of his whip, as equalled the explosion of an ordinary cohorn;
and then broke forth into the halloo of a foxhunter, which he uttered
with all its variations, in a strain of vociferation that seemed to
astonish and confound the whole assembly, to whom he introduced himself
and his spaniel, by exclaiming, in a tone something less melodious than
the cry of mackerel or live cod, "By your leave, gentlevolks, I hope
there's no offence, in an honest plain Englishman's coming with money in
his pocket, to taste a bit of your Vrench frigasee and ragooze."