The Merry Past 



shops of the most noted coachmakers and saddlers, 

 who never failed to receive him with profound 

 respect. After bespeaking something or other, he 

 would then repair to Tattersall's, where he would 

 spend his time with his friends seriously studying the 

 pedigree or merits of horses, or in discussing the in- 

 valuable properties of a pointer, setter, greyhound, 

 or other sporting dog. 



Afterwards driving from one exhibition to another, 

 he would stop at the caricature shops, and about 

 three drive to a fashionable hotel, take his lunch there, 

 read the papers, and arrange his parties for the 

 evening, till he strolled home at five to his toilet, 

 which he found prepared by his valet. At seven 

 he was dressed, and either went with a party 

 to dinner, or returned to the hotel where he had 

 previously arranged with some friends the order of 

 the day. At nine he went to the play — not to see 

 it, which would have been a shocking infringement 

 of the laws of fashionable decorum, but to flit from 

 box to box, to ogle ladies whom he knew, and to 

 show himself to others whom he did not know ; 

 to lounge about the lobbies, take a review of the frail, 

 fair ones in the coffee-room, and saunter back to his 

 carriage. He then drove to a rout, a ball, or the 

 faro-bank of some lady of distinction, who was wont 

 to conceal her own poverty by displaying the full 

 purses of others. About four in the morning, 

 exhausted with fatigue, the buck would return home, 

 to recommence the next morning the follies of the 

 day which had passed. 



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