ith unusual fire, and with a sigh of
philosophic fervour he unbuttoned the extremities of his waistcoat.

"Help yourselves, my boys," said the jovial Cutts; "there's lots of time
before us between this and the broiled bones. By Jove, I'm excessively
thirsty! I say, Mandeville, were you ever in Scotland? I hear great
things of the claret there."

"I never had that honour," replied Mr Young Mandeville, "which I
particularly regret, for I have a high--may I say the highest?--respect
for that intelligent country, and indeed claim a remote connexion with
it. I admire the importance which Scotsmen invariably attach to pure
blood and ancient descent. It is a proof, Mr Cutts, that with them the
principles of chivalry are not extinct, and that the honours which
should be paid to birth alone, are not indiscriminately lavished upon
the mere acquisition of wealth."

"Which means, I suppose, that a lot of rubbishy ancestors is better than
a fortune in the Funds. Well--every man according to his own idea. I am
particularly glad to say, that I understand no nonsense of the kind.
There's Fred, however, will keep you in countenance. He say--but I'll be
hanged if I believe it--that he is descended from some old king or
another, who lived before the invention of breeches."

"Cutts--don't be a fool!"

"Oh, by Jove, it's quite true!" said the irreverent Saxon; "you used to
tell me about it every night when you were half-seas over at Shrewsbury.
It was capital fun to hear you, about the mixing of the ninth tumbler."

"Excuse me, sir," said Mr Mandeville, with an appearance of intense
interest--"do you indeed reckon kindred with the royal family of
Scotland? I have a particular reason personal to myself in the inquiry."

"Why, if you really want to know about it," said I, looking, I suppose,
especially foolish, for Cutts was evidently trotting me out, and I more
than half suspected his companion--"I do claim--but it's a ridiculous
thing to talk of--a lineal descent from a daughter of William the Lion."

"You delight me!" said Mr Mandeville. "The connexion is highly
respectable--I have myself some of that blood in my veins, though
perhaps of a little older date than yours; for one of my ancestors,
Ulric of Mandeville, married a daughter of Fergus the First. I am very
glad indeed to make the acquaintance of a relative after the lapse of so
many centuries."

I returned a polite bow to the salutation of my new-found cousin, and
wished h