uble?' said Dolly. 'Of
course he's a bad fellow. Most fellows are bad fellows in one way or
another.'

'But he's bad all round,' said the bitter enemy.

'And so this is to be the end of the Beargarden,' said Lord Nidderdale
with a peculiar melancholy. 'Dear old place! I always felt it was too
good to last. I fancy it doesn't do to make things too easy;--one has
to pay so uncommon dear for them. And then, you know, when you've got
things easy, then they get rowdy;--and, by George, before you know
where you are, you find yourself among a lot of blackguards. If one
wants to keep one's self straight, one has to work hard at it, one way
or the other. I suppose it all comes from the fall of Adam.'

'If Solomon, Solon, and the Archbishop of Canterbury were rolled into
one, they couldn't have spoken with more wisdom,' said Mr Lupton.

'Live and learn,' continued the young lord. 'I don't think anybody has
liked the Beargarden so much as I have, but I shall never try this
kind of thing again. I shall begin reading blue books to-morrow, and
shall dine at the Carlton. Next session I shan't miss a day in the
House, and I'll bet anybody a flyer that I make a speech before
Easter. I shall take to claret at 20s. a dozen, and shall go about
London on the top of an omnibus.'

'How about getting married?' asked Dolly.

'Oh;--that must be as it comes. That's the governor's affair. None of
you fellows will believe me, but, upon my word, I liked that girl; and
I'd've stuck to her at last,--only there are some things a fellow can't
do. He was such a thundering scoundrel!'

After a while Sir Felix followed them upstairs, and entered the room
as though nothing unpleasant had happened below. 'We can make up a
rubber can't we?' said he.

'I should say not,' said Nidderdale.

'I shall not play,' said Mr Lupton.

'There isn't a pack of cards in the house,' said Dolly. Lord
Grasslough didn't condescend to say a word. Sir Felix sat down with
his cigar in his mouth, and the others continued to smoke in silence.

'I wonder what has become of Miles Grendall,' asked Sir Felix. But no
one made any answer, and they smoked on in silence. 'He hasn't paid me
a shilling yet of the money he owes me.' Still there was not a word.
'And I don't suppose he ever will.' There was another pause. 'He is
the biggest scoundrel I ever met,' said Sir Felix.

'I know one as big,' said Lord Grasslough,--'or, at any rate, as
little.'

There was another pause o