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LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF LONDON LIFE. 



PART THE FIRST. CHALCROFT. 



( Concluded from page 1 85.) 



CHAPTER V. 



IT was the close of autumn, and seven years subsequent to the scene 

 with which this narrative opensj that a gentleman became the occu- 

 pant of part of a cottage in the environs of Brighton. He had but 

 recently returned to England after a sojourn of some years in Ger- 

 many ; this he had himself announced when he became a temporary 

 resident, and his appointments bespoke an abode in foreign countries. 

 The weather at the time of his arrival was lovely, but he seldom 

 profited by it. His occupation confined him to the house almost 

 entirely. One servant, who had been engaged since his return, and 

 who knew no more of his master than his name, and a little favourite 

 terrier, whose attachment proclaimed a more lengthened acquaint- 

 ance, constituted his establishment. A very short period enabled the 

 inmates of the cottage to discover that his pursuits were literary, that 

 in fact he was occupied in writing, either as an amateur or profes- 

 sionally. Equally evident was it, that whatever his present position 

 might be, the sphere of its action was by no means that in which he 

 had been accustomed to move. Still he seemed tranquil, if not 

 happy : he lived exclusively to himself, appearing to shun the chance 

 of being known : his walks, when he did indulge in them, were taken 

 either in the twilight or at a later hour during the moonlight. His 

 manner of living was plain, to homeliness : he drank no wine, his 

 favourite beverage being coffee accompanied by a cigar : his habits 

 were strictly regular, his bearing courteous, but reserved. 



Such was Chalcroft ! not from eccentricity, neither from choice, 

 but from obligation. The death of his father had disclosed to him 

 the real situation of his prospects, of which he had been kept in pro- 

 found ignorance. He succeeded to an income nominally good, but 

 burdened with many charges which the indolence of that father had 

 permitted fearfully to accumulate. Some of these he was peremp- 

 torily called upon to discharge ; renewed securities and premiums 

 were to be given for the others ; all his affairs were at sea, and they 

 were in the hands of an inexperienced pilot. Upon the death of his 

 mother, the only bar to a sale of his estate was removed; his patri- 

 mony was forthwith turned into cash ; he lived, as we have seen him, 

 upon the principal; he became, that which we now find him, a 

 beggar! With the loss of fortune, however, did not come indigence. 

 Slender as his stock of worldly wisdom was, his talents were of a far 

 different calibre. Neither had his reading, or the cultivation of his 

 mind, been lost sight of in the hours of his wildest extravagance. 

 There might have been traced a method pervading his course of 

 reckless prodigality, utterly at issue with the insanity by which he 



