32 A VIRGINIAN. 



" Is Lord ChesMre's man waiting, Langton V" asked 

 the count ; " Ah ! exactly," he continued, as the man 

 answered in the affirmative, " then reach me the wri- 

 ting things, I'll write a line too." 



And by the time Fairfax had completed his elabo- 

 rate and formal billet, the count had scrawled ten lines 

 and sealed them, and the companions were again left 

 alone. 



" What in the name of heaven, my dear fellow, can 

 be your dislike to dining at Cheshire's ? You will meet 

 all the best fellows here at his table, not to say two of 

 the most beautiful women in England. No one gives 

 better feeds — what can it be?" 



" In the first place, tell me what sort of person is 

 this Cheshire?" 



" Oh ! very much like other people — like other men 

 of fashion, I mean ; no saint, of course ; but no 

 greater sinner than his neighbors. He is very well 

 bred to people to whom he chooses to be well bred ; 

 very good humored when he is pleased ; he plays high ; 

 rides pretty well ; and is as agreeable when he holds 

 his tongue, as at any other time ; nature certainly did 

 not endow him too liberally with brains ; and, for all 

 his Eton education, I do not think that he has assisted 

 nature much." 



"Just as I expected," answered Fairfax; "except 

 that you look at him, or at least depict him as you do 

 every thing and every body, couleur de rose. 1 be- 

 lieve this Cheshire to be the most heartless, brainless, 

 soulless voluptuary that ever drew the breath of life — 

 no kind, no generous, no feeling action is recorded of 

 him. An insolent, ungenerous, overbearing aristocrat ; 

 unscrupulous with men, faithless and false with women. 

 If he be honorable in his play and turf transactions, it 

 is because he lacks the temptation to be otherwise. 

 No one who knows his conduct to women, can doubt 

 how he would behave to men if he dar^. or if it were 



