rded his name; and George,
reopening Norwood's letter, satisfied himself that this was the same
confiding individual who had intrusted the noble viscount with a loan
of twenty pounds. George now remembered to have seen his card on Lady
Hester's table, with inquiry after Sir Stafford. "Poor fellow!" thought
he; "another victim of 'trente-et-un.' They have cleared him out at
the tables, and he is either ashamed to write home, or his friends have
refused to assist him. And Norwood, too the heartlessness of putting
to contribution a poor young fellow like this!" Onslow thought worse of
this than of fifty other sharp things of the noble Lord's doing, and of
some of which he had been himself the victim.

"I'll call upon him this very morning!" said George, half aloud, and
with the tone and air of a man who feels he has said a very generous
thing, and expressed a sentiment that he is well aware will expose him
to a certain amount of reprobation. "Jekyl, after all, is a right good
name. Lady Hester said something about Jekyls that she knew, or was
related to. Good style of fellow he looked a little tigerish, but that
comes of the Continent. If he be really presentable, too, my Lady will
be glad to receive him in her present state of destitution. Norwood's
ungracious message was a bore, to be sure, but then he need not deliver
it there was no necessity of taking trouble to be disagreeable or,
better again far better," thought he, and he burst out laughing at the
happy notion, "I 'll misunderstand his meaning, and pay the money.
An excellent thought; for as I am about to book up a heavy sum to his
Lordship, it 's only deducting twenty pounds and handing it to Jekyl,
and I 'll be sworn he wants it most of us all."

The more Onslow reflected on it, the more delighted was he with this
admirable device; and it is but fair to add, that however gratified at
the opportunity of doing a kindness, he was even better pleased at the
thought of how their acquaintance at the "Grosvenor" and the "Ultras"
would laugh at the "sharp viscount's being sold." There was only one man
of all Onslow's set on whom he would have liked to practise this jest,
and that man was Norwood. Having decided upon this plan, he next thought
of the execution of it, and this he determined should be by letter. A
short note, conveying Norwood's message and the twenty pounds, would
save all explanation, and spare Jekyl any unpleasant feeling the
discussion of a private ci