much of a canter, and yet my heart shrinks when I look on that innocent
face, and hear that soft happy voice, and think that my love to her can
be only ruin and disgrace; nay, that my very address is contamination,
and my very glance towards her an insult."

"Heyday!" quoth Tomlinson; "have you been under my instructions, and
learned the true value of words, and can you have any scruples left
on so easy a point of conscience? True, you may call your representing
yourself to her as an unprofessional gentleman, and so winning her
affections, deceit; but why call it deceit when a genius for intrigue is
so much neater a phrase? In like manner, by marrying the young lady, if
you say you have ruined her, you justly deserve to be annihilated; but
why not say you have saved yourself, and then, my dear fellow, you will
have done the most justifiable thing in the world."

"Pish, man!" said Clifford, peevishly; "none of thy sophisms and
sneers!"

"By the soul of Sir Edward Coke, I am serious! But look you, my friend!
this is not a matter where it is convenient to have a tender-footed
conscience. You see these fellows on the ground, all d---d clever, and
so forth; but you and I are of a different order. I have had a classical
education, seen the world, and mixed in decent society; you, too, had
not been long a member of our club before you distinguished yourself
above us all. Fortune smiled on your youthful audacity. You grew
particular in horses and dress, frequented public haunts, and being a
deuced good-looking fellow, with an inborn air of gentility and some
sort of education, you became sufficiently well received to acquire in a
short time the manner and tone of a--what shall I say?--a gentleman, and
the taste to like suitable associates. This is my case too! Despite our
labours for the public weal, the ungrateful dogs see that we are above
them; a single envious breast is sufficient to give us to the hangman.
We have agreed that we are in danger; we have agreed to make an
honourable retreat; we cannot do so without money. You know the vulgar
distich among our set. Nothing can be truer,--

"'Hanging is 'nation
More nice than starvation!'

You will not carry off some of the common stock, though I think you
justly might, considering how much you have put into it. What, then,
shall we do? Work we cannot, beg we will not; and, between you and me,
we are cursedly extravagant! Wh