ife.

At hall--the grand place for rencontres--he managed to get a seat next
to his victim, and began at once to treat him with that appearance of
easy and well-bred familiarity which he had learnt in London circles.
He threw a gentle expression of interest into his face and voice, he
listened with deference to Hazlet's remarks, he addressed several
questions to him, thanked him politely for all his information, and then
adroitly introduced some delicate compliments on the agreeableness of
Hazlet's society. His bait took completely; Hazlet, whom most men
snubbed, was quite flustered with gratified vanity at the condescending
notice of so unexceptionable a man of fashion as the handsome and noted
Vyvyan Bruce. "At last," thought Hazlet, "men are beginning to
appreciate my intellectual powers."

After continuing this process for some days, until Hazlet was
unalterably convinced that he must be a vastly agreeable and attractive
person, Bruce asked him to come to breakfast, and invited Brogten and
Fitzurse to meet him. He calculated justly that Hazlet, accustomed only
to the very quiet neighbourhood of a country village, would be duly
impressed with the presence and acquaintance of a live lord; and he
instructed both his guests in the manner in which they should treat the
subject of their experiment. Hazlet thought he had never enjoyed a
breakfast party so much. There was a delicious spice of worldliness in
the topics of conversation which was quite refreshing to him, accustomed
as he was to the somewhat droning moralisms of his "congenial friends."
Nothing which could deeply shock his prejudices was ever alluded to, but
the discussions which were introduced came to him with all the charm of
novelty and awakened curiosity.

Hazlet never could endure being a silent or inactive listener while a
conversation was going forward. No matter how complete his ignorance of
the subject, he generally managed to hazard some remarks. Bruce talked
a good deal about actors and theatres, and Hazlet had never seen a
theatre in his life. He did not like, however, to confess this fact,
and, after a little hesitation, began to talk as if he were an habitue.
The dramatic criticisms, which he occasionally saw in the papers,
furnished him with just materials enough to amuse Bruce and the others
at his assumption of "savoir vivre," and to furnish a laugh at his
expense the moment he was gone; but of this he was blissfully
unconscious, an