must confess I have seldom found a more diversified scene."

"I beg pardon, gentlemen," said an easy good-looking fellow, with
something rather imposing in his manner--"Shall I intrude here?--will
'you permit me to take a seat in your box?" "By all means," replied
I; Bob, at the same moment, pressing his elbow into my side, and the
exquisite raising his glass very significantly to his eye, the stranger
continued--"A very charming saloon this, gentlemen, and the company
very superior to the general assemblage at such places: my friend, the
Earl of C------, yonder, I perceive, amorously engaged; Lord P------,
too, graces the upper regions with the delightful Josephine: really this
is quite the cafe royal of London; the accommodation, too, admirable--not
merely confined to refreshments; I am told there are excellent billiard
~211~~ tables, and snug little private rooms for a quiet rubber, or a
little chicken hazard. Do you play, gentlemen? very happy to set you for
a main or two, by way of killing time." That one word, play, let me
at once into the secret of our new acquaintance's character, and fully
explained the distant reception and cautious bearing of my associates.
My positive refusal to accommodate produced a very polite bow, and the
party immediately retired to reconnoitre among some less suspicious
visitants. "A nibble," said Transit, "from an ivory turner."{5} "By
the honour of my ancestry," said Lionise, "a very finished sharper;
I remember Lord F------ pointing him out to me at the last Newmarket
spring meeting, when we met him, arm in arm, with a sporting
baronet. What the fellow was, nobody knows; but he claims a military
title--captain, of course--perhaps has formerly held a lieutenancy in a
militia regiment: he now commands a corps of sappers on the Greek staff,
and when he honoured us with a call just now was on the recruiting
service, I should think; but our friend, Heartly, here, would not stand
drill, so he has marched off on the forlorn hope, and is now, you may
perceive, concerting some new scheme with a worthy brother touter,{6}
who is on the half pay of the British army, and receives full pay in
the service of the Greeks. We must make a descent into hell some night,"
said Transit, "and sport a few crowns at roulette or rouge et noir,
to give Heartly his degree. We shall proceed regularly upon college
principles, old fellow: first, we will visit the Little Go in
King-street, and then drop into the Gre