ook up half a column in the _Morning Post_
with a list of "The Company Present,"--in which a sprinkling of dowagers
out of fashion, and a foreign title or two, made the darkness of the
obscurer names doubly dark. Why this man should be asked to meet
_them_, by Baron Levy, too--a decided tuft-hunter and would-be
exclusive--called all their faculties into exercise. The wit, who, being
the son of a small tradesman, but in the very best society, gave himself
far greater airs than the young lords, impertinently solved the mystery.
"Depend on it," whispered he to Spendquick--"depend on it the man is the
X. Y. of the _Times_, who offers to lend any sums of money from L10 to
half-a-million. He's the man who has all your bills; Levy is only his
jackall."

"'Pon my soul," said Spendquick, rather alarmed, "if that's the case,
one may as well be civil to him."

"_You_, certainly," said the wit. "But I never yet found an X. Y. who
would advance me the L. s.; and, therefore, I shall not be more
respectful to X. Y. than to any other unknown quantity."

By degrees, as the wine circulated, the party grew gay and sociable.
Levy was really an entertaining fellow; had all the gossip of the town
at his fingers' ends; and possessed, moreover, that pleasant art of
saying ill-natured things of the absent, which those present always
enjoy. By degrees, too, Mr. Richard Avenel came out; and as the whisper
had circulated round the table that he was X. Y., he was listened to
with a profound respect, which greatly elevated his spirits. Nay, when
the wit tried once to show him up or mystify him, Dick answered with a
bluff spirit, that, though very coarse, was found so humorous by Lord
Spendquick and other gentlemen similarly situated in the money-market,
that they turned the laugh against the wit, and silenced him for the
rest of the night--a circumstance which made the party go off much more
pleasantly. After dinner, the conversation, quite that of single men,
easy and _debonnair_, glanced from the turf, and the ballet, and the
last scandal, towards politics; for the times were such that politics
were discussed everywhere, and three of the young lords were county
members.

Randal said little, but, as was his wont, listened attentively; and he
was aghast to find how general was the belief that the government was
doomed. Out of regard to him, and with that delicacy of breeding which
belongs to a certain society, nothing personal to Egerton was sai