Whyte-Melville's Sennon. 99 



retrieve his fortunes— in a very humorous manner, 

 thus : — 



" I dined with Jack Lavish the night before kst at his, 

 or rather his wife's, house, in Tyburnia proper. He has 

 shaved off his moustache, and has grown stout. Miss Gold- 

 thread that was is a sensible and charming person, and I 

 think I can trace in her manner a slight and not unnatural 

 distrust of her husband's old friends. . . . Jack says 

 he likes being kept tight in hand, it saves so much trouble, 

 and until he had some lady to own him he never knew to 

 which of his fair friends he belonged. . . . He is still 

 as jovial as ever, but beneath his merriment runs a vein of 

 sound common sense, and in his frank and somewhat 

 dandified exterior exists a warm and benevolent heart." 



The real sermon contained in " Digby Grand " is that 

 gambling and bill discounting are simple ruin. And 

 gambling and bill discounting are going on at this present 

 moment to an extent which was never surpassed ; for, 

 whereas in days gone by men ruined themselves at Crock- 

 ford's and the gambling clubs pretty openly, now that 

 gambling is put down by Act of Parliament they are doing 

 it to a far greater extent privately, in all classes, high and 

 low, and on that account the sermon is produced. 



Digby Grand and Jack Lavish are as much alive and 

 walking about now as ever they were, and if some of us 

 who are behind the scenes were to disclose our secrets the 

 world would be rather astonished at what is going on. 

 And the worst of the case is that those who in the end 

 come for succour to men of honour are the real good fellows 

 — weak and impulsive perhaps — who have been dragged 

 to their fate by rogues, and they generally come too late. 

 The old story still goes on, and that story is often this : 

 namely, the bill discounters' credit has been exhausted, and 

 an angry father has been tired out. Sometimes it is the 

 H— 2 



