say too much about that housekeeper of yours; it's a low subject,
damned low.

'I tell you what, sir. If you vote me into one of those empty
chairs, you'll have among you a man with a fund of gentlemanly
information that'll rather astonish you. I can let you into a few
anecdotes about some fine women of title, that are quite high life,
sir - the tiptop sort of thing. I know the name of every man who
has been out on an affair of honour within the last five-and-twenty
years; I know the private particulars of every cross and squabble
that has taken place upon the turf, at the gaming-table, or
elsewhere, during the whole of that time. I have been called the
gentlemanly chronicle. You may consider yourself a lucky dog; upon
my soul, you may congratulate yourself, though I say so.

'It's an uncommon good notion that of yours, not letting anybody
know where you live. I have tried it, but there has always been an
anxiety respecting me, which has found me out. Your deaf friend is
a cunning fellow to keep his name so close. I have tried that too,
but have always failed. I shall be proud to make his acquaintance
- tell him so, with my compliments.

'You must have been a queer fellow when you were a child,
confounded queer. It's odd, all that about the picture in your
first paper - prosy, but told in a devilish gentlemanly sort of
way. In places like that I could come in with great effect with a
touch of life - don't you feel that?

'I am anxiously waiting for your next paper to know whether your
friends live upon the premises, and at your expense, which I take