76 THE SMUGGLE!?. 



drily, "bat I suppose in London the number makes np for the 

 want of intensity." 



" Well, it's a very fine city," rejoined Mr. Radford; " the 

 emporium of the world, the nurse of arts and sciences, the 

 birth-place and the theatre of all that is great and majestic in 

 the efforts of human intellect." 



" And equally of all that is base and vile," answered his 

 opponent; " it is the place to which all smuggled goods natu- 

 rally tend, Radford. Every uncustomed spirit, every prohi- 

 bited ware, physical and intellectual, there finds its mart; and 

 the chief art that is practised is to cheat as cleverly as may 

 be; the chief science learned, is how to defraud without being 

 detected. We are improving in the country daily, daily; but 

 we have not reached the skill of London yet. Men make 

 large fortunes in the country in a few years by merely cheating 

 the customs ; but in London they make large fortunes in a few 

 months by cheating everybody." 



" So they do in India," replied Mr. Radford, who thought 

 he had hit the tender place. 



"True, true!" cried Mr. Croyland; "and then we go and 

 set up for country gentlemen, and cheat still. What rogues 

 we are, Radford ! eh ? I see you know the world. It is very 

 well for me to say I made all my money by curing men, not 

 by robbing them. Never you believe it, my good friend. It 

 is not in human nature, is it? No, no, tell that to the 

 marines. No man ever made a fortune but by plunder, that's 

 a certain fact." 



The course of Sir Robert Croyland's dinner-party seemed to 

 promise very unpleasantly at this juncture; but Sir Edward 

 Digby, though somewhat amused, was not himself fond of 

 sharp words, and had some compassion upon the ladies at the 

 table. He therefore stepped in, and, without seeming to have 

 noticed that there was anything passing between Mr. Radford 

 and the brother of his host except the most delicate courtesies, 

 he contrived, by some well-directed questions in regard to 

 India, to give Mr. Croyland an inducement to deviate from the 

 sarcastic into the expatiative; and having set him cantering 

 upon one of his hobbies, he left him to finish his excursion, 

 and returned to a conversation which had been going on be- 

 tween him and the fair Zara, in somewhat of a low tone, 

 though not so low as to show any mutual design of keeping it 



