Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 1, 2025
Two or three evenings after, Francis Ardry came to see me again, and again we went out together, and Francis Ardry took me to shall I say? why not? a gaming-house, where I saw people playing, and where I saw Francis Ardry play and lose five guineas, and where I lost nothing, because I did not play, though I felt somewhat inclined; for a man with a white hat and a sparkling eye held up a box which contained something which rattled, and asked me to fling the bones.
"Nor Butler." "No?" "Nor Otway." "No?" "Nor that poor boy Chatterton, who, maddened by rascally patrons and publishers, took poison at last." "No?" said Francis Ardry. "Why do you keep saying 'No'? I tell you that I am no admirer of Byron." "Well," said Frank, "don't say so to any one else. It will be thought that you are envious of his glory, as indeed I almost think you are."
On this very day, in his account, he first met the "fiery, enthusiastic and open-hearted," pleasure-loving young Irishman, whom he calls Francis Ardry, who took him to the theatre and to "the strange and eccentric places of London," and no doubt helped to give him the feeling of "a regular Arabian Nights' entertainment."
No, I don't mean him, nor any one of his stamp; I mean an Irish patriot, one who thinks he can show his love for his country in no better way than by beating the English." "Beating the English?" said I; "I should like to see him." Whereupon taking me by the arm, Francis Ardry conducted me through various alleys, till we came to a long street which seemed to descend towards the south.
Whereupon Francis Ardry told me that he had been much engaged in his oratorical exercises, also in escorting the young Frenchwoman about to places of public amusement; he then again questioned me as to the reason of my not having been to see him. I returned an evasive answer.
The servant, in some confusion, was hastening to close the door; but, ere he could effect his purpose, Francis Ardry, who had caught a glimpse of me, exclaimed, 'Come in come in by all means'; and then proceeded, as before, speechifying and gesticulating. Filled with some surprise, I obeyed his summons.
‘It is not always indispensable,’ said I; ‘there is an orator in my town, a hunchback and watchmaker, without it, who not only leads the people, but the mayor too; perhaps he has a succedaneum in his hunch: but, tell me, is the leader of your movement in possession of that which wants?’ ‘No more deficient in it than in brass,’ said Francis Ardry.
‘I might ask the same question of you,’ I replied. ‘Wherefore have you not been to see me?’ Whereupon Francis Ardry told me that he had been much engaged in his oratorical exercises, also in escorting the young Frenchwoman about to places of public amusement; he then again questioned me as to the reason of my not having been to see him. I returned an evasive answer.
On entering the room I perceived another individual to whom Francis Ardry appeared to be addressing himself; this other was a short, spare man of about sixty; his hair was of a badger grey, and his face was covered with wrinkles without vouchsafing me a look, he kept his eye, which was black and lustrous, fixed full on Francis Ardry, as if paying the deepest attention to his discourse.
The truth was, that for some time past my appearance, owing to the state of my finances, had been rather shabby, and I did not wish to expose a fashionable young man like Francis Ardry, who lived in a fashionable neighbourhood, to the imputation of having a shabby acquaintance.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking