out that
I'm rational, and set me to work.'

Lancelot laughed and sighed.

'But how on earth do you contrive to get on so well with men with
whom you have not an idea in common!'

'Savoir faire, O infant Hercules! own daddy to savoir vivre. I am a
good listener; and, therefore, the most perfect, because the most
silent, of flatterers. When they talk Puginesquery, I stick my head
on one side attentively, and "think the more," like the lady's
parrot. I have been all the morning looking over a set of drawings
for my lord's new chapel; and every soul in the party fancies me a
great antiquary, just because I have been retailing to B as my own
everything that A told me the moment before.'

'I envy you your tact, at all events.'

'Why the deuce should you? You may rise in time to something better
than tact; to what the good book, I suppose, means by "wisdom."
Young geniuses like you, who have been green enough to sell your
souls to "truth," must not meddle with tact, unless you wish to fare
as the donkey did when he tried to play lap-dog.'

'At all events, I would sooner remain cub till they run me down and
eat me, than give up speaking my mind,' said Lancelot. 'Fool I may
be, but the devil himself shan't make me knave.'

'Quite proper. On two thousand a year a man can afford to be
honest. Kick out lustily right and left!--After all, the world is
like a spaniel; the more you beat it, the better it likes you--if
you have money. Only don't kick too hard; for, after all, it has a
hundred million pair of shins to your one.'

'Don't fear that I shall run a-muck against society just now. I am
too thoroughly out of my own good books. I have been for years
laughing at Young England, and yet its little finger is thicker than
my whole body, for it is trying to do something; and I, alas, am
doing utterly nothing. I should be really glad to take a lesson of
these men and their plans for social improvement.'

'You will have a fine opportunity this evening. Don't you dine at
Minchampstead?'

'Yes. Do you?'

'Mr. Jingle dines everywhere, except at home. Will you take me over
in your trap?'

'Done. But whom shall we meet there?'

'The Lavingtons, and Vieuxbois, and Vaurien, and a parson or two, I
suppose. But between Saint Venus and Vieuxbois you may soon learn
enough to make you a sadder man, if not a wiser one.'

'Why not a wiser one? Sadder than now I cannot be; or less wise,