tables and light chairs are dispersed about the
shop for the convenience of customers. Here
my companion compounded a drink of soda
water and gin and lemon and ginger, of which
he wished me to partake. I declined the
mixture and took a glass of sherry. We might
have sat five minutes, when a tall and important
looking personage lounged into the wine-shop.
As he entered he cast a supercilious look upon
all the occupants of the tables ; then, raising his
head, he removed his cigar and emitted a long
column of smoke from his lips as a
contemptuous verdict of lofty disapproval on the
society he had joined. He was well-dressed—
irreproachably, so far as the quality and cut
of his clothes were concerned ; but they
seemed to assert that conscious independence
of their wearer that new clothes will assert
over a person who has been up all night.
His black hair and small moustache were
scrupulously well arranged, but his eyes blinked in
the daylight, seemingly for want of a night's
rest.

He sauntered up to our table and emitted
another superior column of smoke over our
heads.

"Know this swell?" my Yankee friend
whispered.

I shook my head.

"Thought he might be a member of yure
Congress, or a tailor's advertisement, or some
other nob."

There was a spare chair at our table, and the
person thus irreverently alluded to, after some
time spent in mentally estimating the relative
merits of the other vacant chairs, appeared to
prevail on himself to take it and sit down.

"Spree, last night," he condescended to
say presently. " Champagne supper and things
till all was blue."

"Very pretty tipple," said my American
friend.

"Ya-as. Then coming home with some
fellahs we saw a Hansom waiting outside a
doctor's door, and we chained the man's cab
to an iron post."

"Man cuss much?"

"Bay Jove, ya'as. Doctor damning the cab-
man and swearing he should be late, cabby
cutting into his horse like forty thousand, and
couldn't tell what was up."

"Will yeu liquor?" inquired my American
friend.

"No; 'pon m' word, you know — you'll allow
me. Waiter, bottle of champagne!"

"Wal, reckon I'm not particular, so as
we du liquor. (Original Champagne Charlie,"
the American whispered to me).

The swell put his hand in his breast pocket
and carelessly drew out a roll of notes, one of
which he changed to pay for the champagne.

My American friend nudged me and raised
his eye-brows.

"You'll excuse me, stranger," he said, " but
if I was in yure place I would take care of those
notes and not keep 'em in a breast pocket, nor
yet flash 'em about."

"Oh," said the swell, " I always carry them
so."

"Then maybe you don't live in London, sir?"

"Oh, bay Jove, no. The fact is my uncle
has lately died and left me a fine property down
in Essex, and till the lawyers have settled up
I came to have a flutter in town."

"Then yeu'll excuse me, once again, but if I
was in yure place I wouldn't flutter my notes,"
and the American appealed to me for justification.
"Ye see yeu never know what company
yeu may be in."

I thought I knew what company I was in;
but I didn't say so.

"Aw! for that matter," said the swell, "I
know I am always safe in the company of
gentlemen."

"That's correct. But heow do yeu tell a
gentleman from a coon?"

"Well, I think a man's a gentleman — aw—if
he's got money in his pocket."

"Happen you're right. But heow much
money must a man have in his pocket to prove
him a gentleman?"

"Nothing less than five pund," said the swell.

"Wal, I dunno. But for my part, I shouldn't
like yeu to think yeu were talkin with anyone
but a gentleman as far as I'm concerned," and
my American friend produced his purse.

"Aw," said the swell, before he opened it,
"bay Jove, I'll bet you a new hat, you haven't
got five pund in your purse."

"Done with yeu!" said my esteemed friend.
And on exhibiting his purse, he showed nearly
thirty sovereigns as well as I could judge.

"Aw, then I've lost, and I owe you a hat.
Aw, here is my card." He handed it to us both.
Frederick Church, Esquire.

I was impressed with the notion that the faces
of both these men were somehow familiar to me.

The American nudged me again and bestowed
upon me an encouraging wink.

"Reckon now yeu won't bet my friend here
he hasn't got five sovereigns about him?" He
nudged me again.

"Ya'as I will," said Mr. Church, languidly.
"I often do it for a lark. I am generally about
right twice out of three times."

I said that I didn't bet.

"Aw, well, some people don't. I wouldn't
persuade anybody 'm sure. Sure to lose in the
long run. Bay Jove, I know I do. But just
for the sport of the thing, I don't mind standing
a new hat if you've got five pund about you.
Your friend shall be a witness. It's all right,
you know, among gentlemen."

I produced my purse. It contained about
seven pounds in gold and silver. I also had
about me a gold watch and chain, a ring or
two, and a shirt pin. I observed just the faintest
sign of an interchange of intelligence between
my companions.

"Ah, lost again," Mr. Church remarked;
"well, can't be helped! Another bottle of
champagne."

This bottle my American friend insisted on
paying for. I drank very little.