22 A CLUB-ROOM. 



sweet sneer on his cynical yet half handsome features, 

 "" that, about the time when a noble ancestor of yours 

 was dancing and making bon-mots with De Grammont 

 and the other wits and bloods — as it was then the 

 fashion of the day to call them — of King Charles the 

 Second's court, the near descendants, who have now 

 both become, by chance of blood, the right heirs male 

 of the Earls Percy and the Barons Fairfax, emigrated 

 to Virginia and founded families. I suppose this gen- 

 tleman belongs to that lineage, count." 



"Precisely so. Fairfax on the father's side, Percy 

 on the mother's." 



" I thought as much when I heard you speak of 

 him. And what sort of person is he?" 



" Very much comme il faut ; handsome enough, 

 and good manners ; tant soit peu French, rather than 

 English, in his manner ; and perhaps a little too fin- 

 ished in his English ; yet on the whole very well — a 

 fine young man I should call him, and I fancy, a good 

 fellow." 



" What do you mean by too finished in his English, 

 count?" asked Jardinier, who was no great dab at 

 speaking, and no hand at all at spelling, the vernacu- 

 lar — " that must be very funny." 



" Oh ! I don't know exactly ; he uses too long words 

 perhaps ; he says ' extraordinary ' when we should say 

 'odd,' and lovely' where we would say 'pretty;' and 

 he calls the 'blacks' 'our colored population.' But 

 it only sounds quaint ; no one would call it vulgar or 

 affected, and on the whole, Jardinier, I would not ad- 

 vise you to try to roast him." 



"By !" exclaimed the peer, with an oath, " I 



shan't try it. I have not the least taste for blunder- 

 busses in a saw-pit." 



" He would hardly need those," said the Russian, 

 " though he looks likely enough to use them on occa- 

 sion. He did shoot a couple of French fellows, I fee- 



