s were
discussed; they were overcome. Potts was ready for any amount of
trouble; Mallard the same. There was clearly a race. There would
consequently be a record. Visits to the offices of those papers,
perhaps half a day at the south end of London or on Westminster bridge,
examining witnesses, corner shopmen, watermen, and the like, would or
should satisfactorily establish the disputed point.

Fleetwood had his fun; insomuch that he laughed himself into a sentiment
of humaneness toward the couple of donkeys and forgot his contempt of
them. Their gamblings and their bets increased his number of dependents;
and imbeciles were preferable to dolts or the dry gilt figures of
the circle he had to move in. Matter for some astonishment had been
furnished to the latter this day; and would cause an icy Signor stare
and rather an angry Signora flutter. A characteristic of that upper
circle, as he knew it, is, that the good are dull, the vicious very bad.
They had nothing to please him but manners. Elsewhere this land is
a land of no manners. Take it and make the most of it, then, for its
quality of brute honesty: which is found to flourish best in the British
prize-ring.

His irony landed him there. It struck the country a ringing blow. But
it struck an almost effacing one at the life of the young nobleman
of boundless wealth, whose highest renown was the being a patron of
prizefighters. Husband of the daughter of the Old Buccaneer as well!
perchance as a result. That philosopher tramp named her 'beautiful
Gorgon.' She has no beauty; and as for Gorgon, the creature has a look
of timid softness in waiting behind her rocky eyes. A barbaric damsel
beginning to nibble at civilization, is nearer the mark; and ought she
to be discouraged?

Fleetwood's wrath with his position warned him against the dupery of
any such alcove thoughts. For his wrath revenged him, and he feared the
being stripped of it, lest a certain fund of his own softness, that he
knew of; though few did, should pull him to the creature's feet. She
belonged to him indeed; so he might put her to the trial of whether she
had a heart and personal charm, without the ceremony of wooing--which,
in his case, tempted to the feeling desperately earnest and becoming
enslaved. He speculated upon her eyelids and lips, and her voice, when
melting, as women do in their different ways; here and there with an
execrable--perhaps pardonable--art; one or two divinely. The vision
drew