y some cleverness, and "a
well-assorted selection" of anecdotes and illustrations "from the best
markets," (as his worthy father would have advertised it,) and could
fill the chair at his own entertainments with ease if not with
gracefulness, and moreover was not close with his purse-strings, and
could always be reckoned safe for a L.20 note if a dun was troublesome,
(well knowing that even under-graduates make exceptions in favour of
debts of honour,) he became, among his younger friends especially, a
very popular man. And when those who had enjoyed his good fare, and
profited by his friendly offices with duns and proctors, found that,
after all, he was "nobody," all they said was, that it was a pity, and
that he was a monstrous good fellow none the less. And one invited him
to spend the Christmas with him down at the governor's in Kent, where
there was to be a regular houseful, and merry-making of all sorts, and
another would have him into Norfolk in September for the shooting--(the
dean never shot, but wisely said nothing about it until he got into
good quarters, when he left his younger friends to beat the stubbles,
while he walked or drove with Lady Mary and Lady Emily, and eat the
partridges;)--so that on the whole he felt himself rather an ill-used
individual if there was a week of the vacation for which he had not an
invite. If such a rare and undesirable exception did happen, seldom
indeed did he bestow himself, even for a day or two, upon his mother and
sisters at Nottingham; and never did he, by any oversight, permit a
letter to be addressed to him there; if it could not conveniently bear
the address of some of his titled entertainers, it was to meet him at
his college, to which he usually retired to await, with sufficient
discontent, an invitation, or the beginning of term; while he took pains
to have it understood, that his temporary seclusion was hardly spared
him from the hospitable importunities of those whom he delighted to call
"his many friends," in order to attend to important business.
Occasionally, indeed, it would happen that the natural sagacity of some
old English gentleman, or the keen eye of an experienced courtier, would
fathom at a glance the character of his son's invited guest, and treat
him with a distant politeness which he could neither mistake nor get
over; but, on the whole, his visits among his aristocratic entertainers
were agreeable enough, and he was not a man to stick at an occasio