me add also, by some profound thought, by struggling too, be it
remembered, with a class of society as little scrupulous, though not so
skilful as himself, that he is necessarily an infamous character. What
if, at eighteen years of age, without a friend in the world, trusting to
the powerful frame and intrepid spirit with which Nature had endowed me,
I flung myself into the ring? Who should be a gladiator if I were
not? Is that a crime? What if, at a later period, with a brain for
calculation which none can rival, I invariably succeeded in that in
which the greatest men in the country fail! Am I to be branded because
I have made half a million by a good book? What if I have kept a
gambling-house? From the back parlour of an oyster-shop my hazard
table has been removed to this palace. Had the play been foul, this
metamorphosis would never have occurred. It is true I am an usurer. My
dear sir, if all the usurers in this great metropolis could only pass
in procession before you at this moment, how you would start! You might
find some Right Honourables among them; many a great functionary, many
a grave magistrate; fathers of families, the very models of respectable
characters, patrons and presidents of charitable institutions, and
subscribers for the suppression of those very gaming-houses whose
victims, in nine cases out of ten, are their principal customers. I
speak not in bitterness. On the whole, I must not complain of the world,
but I have seen a great deal of mankind, and more than most, of what is
considered its worst portion. The world, Captain Armine, believe me, is
neither so bad nor so good as some are apt to suppose. And after all,'
said Mr. Bond Sharpe, shrugging up his shoulders, 'perhaps we ought to
say with our friend the Count, _Vive la bagatelle!_ Will you take some
supper?'

CHAPTER XIV.

_Miss Grandison Piques the Curiosity of Lord Montfort, and
Count Mirabel Drives Ferdinand Down to Richmond, Which
Drive Ends in an Agreeable Adventure and an Unexpected
Confidence_.

THE discovery that Henrietta Temple was the secret object of Ferdinand's
unhappy passion, was a secret which Miss Grandison prized like a true
woman. Not only had she made this discovery, but from her previous
knowledge and her observation during her late interview with Miss
Temple, Katherine was persuaded that Henrietta must still love her
cousin as before. Miss Grandison was attached to Henrietta; she was