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But he is very fond of yachts and other men's wives, if he does not like his own; and wherever he goes, he is welcome. That young man with an embroidered silk waistcoat and white gloves, bending to talk to one of the ladies, is a Mr Vaughan. He is to be seen at Almack's, at Crockford's, and everywhere else. Everybody knows him, and he knows everybody.
I give you my honor, sir, that I took up the work at six, meaning to amuse myself till seven, when Lord Trumpington's dinner was to come off, and egad! in two minutes I fell asleep, and never woke till midnight. Nobody ever thought of looking for me in the library, where nobody ever goes; and so ravenously hungry was I, that I was obliged to walk off to Crockford's for supper.
"When merchant, banker, broker, shake In Crockford's club their elbow, And for St. James's clock forsake The chiming of thy bell, Bow: When Batson's, Garraway's, and John's, At night show empty boxes, While cits are playing dice with dons, Or ogling opera doxies; Then Gog shall start, and Magog shall Tremble upon his pedestal."
That kindly middle-aged gentleman whom his county knows that good landlord, and friend of all his tenantry round about; that builder of churches, and indefatigable visitor of schools; that writer of letters to the farmers of his shire, so full of sense and benevolence; who wins prizes at agricultural shows, and even lectures at county town institutes in his modest, pleasant way, was the wild young Lord Kew of a quarter of a century back; who kept racehorses, patronised boxers, fought a duel, thrashed a Life Guardsman, gambled furiously at Crockford's, and did who knows what besides?
But in shutting up gaming-houses, we brought the gaming-table into the street, and its practices became the pursuit of those who would otherwise have never witnessed or even thought of them. No doubt Crockford's had its tragedies, but all its disasters and calamities together would hardly equal a lustre of the ruthless havoc which has ensued from its suppression.
All this store of knowledge he kept quietly to himself, or only delivered in confidence to his next neighbour in the intervals of the banquet, which he enjoys prodigiously. He lives at an hotel: if not invited to dine, eats a mutton-chop very humbly at his club, and finishes his evening after the play at Crockford's, whither he goes not for the sake of the play, but of the supper there.
Everywhere a mysterious bustle and an awful stir. What could be the matter? What has happened? "It is true," said Mr Egerton to Mr Berners at Brookes'. "Is it true?" asked Mr Jermyn of Lord Valentine at the Canton. "I heard it last night at Crockford's," said Mr Ormsby; "one always hears things there four-and-twenty hours before other places."
At a given moment, D'Orsay learned that a young man known as Lord Raoul Ardale was in reality his son. Instantly the man of the world, the squire of dames, went off into a deliquium of tender emotion. For "my bo-ô-oy" he would do anything and everything. He would go down to Crockford's and win a pot of money to pay "my boy's" debts Fortune could not but be kind to a doting parent.
But he is very fond of yachts and other men's wives, if he does not like his own; and wherever he goes, he is welcome. That young man with an embroidered silk waistcoat and white gloves, bending to talk to one of the ladies, is a Mr Vaughan. He is to be seen at Almack's, at Crockford's, and everywhere else. Everybody knows him, and he knows everybody.
The bookseller's window was filled with yellow-backed novels and toy-books, which obviously would not do. So they marched in and demanded a book suitable for a clergyman who had a good many books already "a middle-aged clergyman," George added. "You can't go far wrong with this," suggested the bookseller, producing Crockford's "Clerical Directory" for the current year.
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