MR. FULWAR CRAVEN 107 



I have a tale to tell, which may remind some of my 

 readers, from their own experience, how needful it is to 

 be chary of uttering a pronounced opinion in company 

 we know nothing of. Treen, on his way to London, was 

 asked by a perfect stranger if he had been to the Derby. 

 On his answering that he had been, the other went on to 

 say: 



' Then I suppose you saw the jockey nearly fall off 

 Deception, and lose the race.' 



Treen could not stand this. It was too touchingly 

 effective ; and he replied sharply : 



1 1 rode her myself !' 



1 Ah,' said the stranger, ' I did not see the race, but 

 heard someone say so ! It just shows how stories do get 

 circulated, and how people believe them.' 



This, I think, must be regarded, in the light of a 

 rejoinder turning an awkward conversation into another 

 channel, as very neat indeed. 



Mr. Craven was curious in the way he described him- 

 self, as in other things. He would allow neither prefix 

 nor suffix to his name. Addicted to dissipation in its 

 wildest forms, he was never married, I believe, and 

 was fond of gay company socially beneath him. Every 

 day, when the races were over, he would be found in 

 such company, amusing himself and everyone else by 

 his jesting and buffoonery not of a very refined nature. 

 His extravagant anecdotes, effectively told with the 

 gravity of a Munchausen, would elicit from his audience 

 roars of laughter, repeated again and again ; until, 

 satiated with the endless variety of the bom mots, recita- 

 tions, and songs that he would pour forth, they would 

 retire to rest with aching sides, or overpowered with the 

 fumes of tobacco and too potent libations. 



His boon companion in these debauches was Mr. John 



