GOSSIP.
"If friends are poor and you can't use 'em,
'Tis always pleasant to abuse 'em,
Although in their turn it is true,
They're sure to speak the worst of you.
The pot may call the kettle black,
But kettle pays the favour back,
And useless is all indignation,
For 'tis the law of compensation."
Otterburn's chambers in a pleasant street off Piccadilly were furnished in a very comfortable fashion, having been the property of an extravagant young man who came to grief on the turf, and thereupon disposed of his rooms and their contents to Angus Macjean, who was looking for apartments. As the Master had not much idea of arranging furniture according to individual taste, beyond banishing some rather "rapid" pictures from the walls and replacing them by hunting trophies from his American trip, he left the rooms in their original state, which was by no means a bad one.
Johnnie Armstrong indeed had been moved to wrath by seeing such a lot of money spent on costly trifles, for the charming little statuettes in bronze, the delicate ornaments in Dresden china, and the thousand and one nick-nacks suggestive of cultured taste were all so many objects of horror in the eyes of Mr. Armstrong, being evidence of sinful waste on the part of their purchaser. In spite of his love for the turf, the former proprietor of these rooms must have had a cultured mind, rare among the gilded youth of to-day, as Angus during the earlier days of his occupancy often came across some tiny water-colour, or some rare edition of a book which showed both good taste and critical judgment.
"What a pity for such a clever fellow as Bamfield to go to the dogs through racing, when he could appreciate all this sort of thing," he said half aloud one day, on turning over a charming edition of Villon's poems.
"It's an ill wind that blaws naebody ony guid," observed Johnnie, who overheard this remark, "an' ye got the hail thing cheap enow."
This view of the situation was quite characteristic of Johnnie. He despised the costly furnishing of the room as sinful waste, but was quite content that all this splendour should be paid for by someone else, seeing that his master had got it cheap. Economy in Johnnie's eyes was the greatest of virtues, and he delighted to make bargains for things which he did not want for the mere sake of getting the better of the seller. This was not strictly speaking economy at all, seeing that the things bought were superfluous, but it pleased Johnnie and amused Angus, so the dour old man pottered on in his own narrow-minded way without interruption.
The rooms, therefore, were furnished in a fashion calculated to please the most fastidious critic, and Angus was very comfortably settled in Town for the season. He had not yet seen Victoria, as he intended to woo his lady love in a somewhat cautious fashion, but had asked Dolly Thambits to breakfast with a view to finding out her movements in Society.
Mr. Thambits was a good-natured young fool, with the comfortable income of thirty-thousand a year and not the slightest idea how to spend it. His father having been an inventor, had made a large fortune by genuine talent and dexterous advertising, and resolved to make his son a gentleman, in which laudable ambition he succeeded fairly well, for Adolphus Thambits was not a bad sort of fellow on the whole, although a monstrous fool in many ways. Not all the tuition of Harrow and Cambridge could put any sense into his silly head, and his father having died suddenly, he was left alone in the world with this large income and not the slightest idea how to guide his life.
For the sake of his money he was asked everywhere, and as he always conducted himself well, and was very good-natured, people liked him after a fashion, although they despised and profited by his weakness of character. Cleopatra had taken him up, and, assisted by Major Griff, was teaching him experience of the world in a manner beneficial to herself and partner, but decidedly detrimental to the pocket of the unfortunate Dolly.