St. James's; could
talk to Monsieur Barbeau, in Monsieur B.'s native language, much more
fluently than most other folks,--discovered a very elegant and decided
taste in wines, and could distinguish between Clos Vougeot and Romande
with remarkable skill. He was the young King of the Wells, of which
the general frequenters were easygoing men of the world, who were by no
means shocked at that reputation for gallantry and extravagance which
Harry had got, and which had so frightened Mr. Wolfe.

Though our Virginian lived amongst the revellers, and swam and sported
in the same waters with the loose fish, the boy had a natural shrewdness
and honesty which kept him clear of the snares and baits which are
commonly set for the unwary. He made very few foolish bets with the
jolly idle fellows round about him, and the oldest hands found it
difficult to take him in. He engaged in games outdoors and in, because
he had a natural skill and aptitude for them, and was good to hold
almost any match with any fair competitor. He was scrupulous to play
only with those gentlemen whom he knew, and always to settle his own
debts on the spot. He would have made but a very poor figure at a
college examination; though he possessed prudence and fidelity, keen,
shrewd perception, great generosity, and dauntless personal courage.

And he was not without occasions for showing of what stuff he was made.
For instance, when that unhappy little Cattarina, who had brought him
into so much trouble, carried her importunities beyond the mark at which
Harry thought his generosity should stop, he withdrew from the advances
of the Opera-House Siren with perfect coolness and skill, leaving her
to exercise her blandishments upon some more easy victim. In vain the
mermaid's hysterical mother waited upon Harry, and vowed that a cruel
bailiff had seized all her daughter's goods for debt, and that her
venerable father was at present languishing in a London gaol. Harry
declared that between himself and the bailiff there could be no
dealings, and that because he had had the good fortune to become known
to Mademoiselle Cattarina, and to gratify her caprices by presenting her
with various trinkets and knick-knacks for which she had a fancy, he was
not bound to pay the past debts of her family, and must decline being
bail for her papa in London, or settling her outstanding accounts at
Tunbridge. The Cattarina's mother first called him a monster and an
ingrate, and then