of fabulous
dimensions said to have been collected by the Tories to influence the
General Election; and the undoubted contribution of a noble duke was
particularly mentioned, which alone appalled the heart of Brooks'. The
matter was put before Neuchatel, as he entered the club, to which he
had been recently elected with acclamation. "So you are a little
frightened," he said, with a peculiarly witching smile which he had,
half mockery and half good nature; as much as to say, "I will do what
you wish, but I see through you and everybody else." "So you are a
little frightened. Well; we City men must see what we can do against the
dukes. You may put me down for double his amount."

Adrian purchased a very fine mansion in Portland Place, and took up his
residence formally at Hainault. He delighted in the place, and to dwell
there in a manner becoming the scene had always been one of his dreams.
Now he lived there with unbounded expenditure. He was passionately fond
of horses, and even in his father's lifetime had run some at Newmarket
in another name. The stables at Hainault had been modelled on those at
Chantilly, and were almost as splendid a pile as the mansion itself.
They were soon full, and of first-rate animals in their different ways.
With his choice teams Adrian could reach Bishopsgate from Hainault,
particularly if there were no stoppages in Whitechapel, in much under an
hour.

If he had fifty persons in his stables, there were certainly as many in
his park and gardens. These latter were most elaborate. It seemed there
was nothing that Hainault could not produce: all the fruits and flowers
of the tropics. The conservatories and forcing-houses looked, in the
distance, like a city of glass. But, after all, the portion of this
immense establishment which was most renowned, and perhaps, on the
whole, best appreciated, was the establishment of the kitchen. The chef
was the greatest celebrity of Europe; and he had no limit to his staff,
which he had selected with the utmost scrutiny, maintained with becoming
spirit, and winnowed with unceasing vigilance. Every day at Hainault
was a banquet. What delighted Adrian was to bring down without notice a
troop of friends, conscious they would be received as well as if there
had been a preparation of weeks. Sometimes it was a body from the Stock
Exchange, sometimes a host from the House of Commons, sometimes a board
of directors with whom he had been transacting business in the