amethysts, the most hideous eyes ever looked
upon,--a musical snuff-box, and two Keepsakes of the year before last,
and accompanied with a couple of gown pieces of the most astounding
colours, the receipt of which goods made the Sylphide laugh and wonder
immoderately. Now it is a fact that Colonel Altamont had made a purchase
of cigars and French silks from some duffers in Fleet Street about
this period; and he was found by Strong in the open Auction Room in
Cheapside, having invested some money in two desks, several pairs of
richly-plated candlesticks, a dinner epergne, and a bagatelle-board. The
dinner epergne remained at chambers, and figured at the banquets there,
which the Colonel gave pretty freely. It seemed beautiful in his eyes,
until Jack Holt said it looked as if it had been taken "in a bill." And
Jack Holt certainly knew.

The dinners were pretty frequent at chambers, and Sir Francis Clavering
condescended to partake of them constantly. His own house was shut up:
the successor of Mirobolant, who had sent in his bills so prematurely,
was dismissed by the indignant Lady Clavering: the luxuriance of the
establishment was greatly pruned and reduced. One of the large footmen
was cashiered, upon which the other gave warning, not liking to serve
without his mate, or in a family where on'y one footman was kep'.
General and severe economical reforms were practised by the Begum in
her whole household, in consequence of the extravagance of which her
graceless husband had been guilty. The Major, as her ladyship's friend;
Strong, on the part of poor Clavering; her ladyship's lawyer, and
the honest Begum herself, executed these reforms with promptitude and
severity. After paying the Baronet's debts, the settlement of which
occasioned considerable public scandal, and caused the Baronet to sink
even lower in the world's estimation than he had been before, Lady
Clavering quitted London for Tunbridge Wells in high dudgeon, refusing
to see her reprobate husband, whom nobody pitied. Clavering remained
in London patiently, by no means anxious to meet his wife's just
indignation, and sneaked in and out of the House of Commons, whence he
and Captain Raff and Mr. Marker would go to have a game at billiards
and a cigar or showed in the sporting public-houses; or might be seen
lurking about Lincoln's Inn and his lawyers', where the principals kept
him for hours waiting, and the clerks winked at each other, as he sate
in their office.