ith great
surprise, he found himself _vis a vis_ with the spectacled visage of
Jedediah Hazlet.

"But how shall I get my exeat to go to London?" said Hazlet.

"Oh, say a particular friend has invited you to spend the Sunday with
him. Say you want to hear Starfish preach."

Mr Norton, Hazlet's tutor, who did not expect him to fall into
mischief, and thought that very likely Mr Starfish's eloquence might be
the operating attraction, granted him the exeat without any difficulty,
and on Saturday Hazlet was reclining in a first-class carriage, with
Bruce, Brogten, and Fitzurse, on his way to Vyvyan House. A change was
observable in his dress. Bruce had hinted to him that his usual garb
might look a little formal and odd at a theatre, and had persuaded him
to come to his own egregious Camford tailor, Mr Fitfop, who, as a
particular favour to his customer Bruce, produced with suspicious
celerity the cut-away coat and mauve-coloured pegtops, in which unwonted
splendour Hazlet was now arrayed. It was a pity that his ears were so
obturated with vanity as not to have heard the shrieks of half-stifled
laughter created by his first public appearance in this fashionable
guise, which only required to be completed by the death's-head pin with
which Bruce presented him, (and which therefore he was obliged to wear),
to make it perfect.

The sumptuous and voluptuous richness of all the appointments in Vyvyan
House introduced Hazlet to a new world. Sir Rollo and Lady Bruce were
not in town, so that the four young men had the house entirely to
themselves, and Bruce ordered about the servants with royal energy.
Soon after their arrival they sat down to a choice dinner, and Bruce
took care, although the champagne had been abundant at dinner, to pass
pretty freely, at dessert, the best claret and amontillado of his
father's cellars. Hazlet was not slow to follow the example which the
others set him; he helped himself plentifully to everything, and after
dinner, lolling in an easy attitude, copied from Fitzurse, he even
ventured to exhibit his very recently acquired accomplishment of smoking
a weed. Very soon he imagined that he had quite made an impression on
the most fashionable members of the Saint Werner's world.

They went to the Regent, and between the acts, Bruce, who knew
everything, introduced them behind the scenes. Hazlet, rather amazed at
his own boldness, but in reality entirely ignorant which way to turn,
necessarily