“Frank Fairlegh,” was the answer.
“You could not have applied to a better person,” replied I. “Frank Fairlegh!—why, he was one of my most intimate friends.”
“Was—umph!”
“Why, yes, it's more was than is, certainly—for since I've been reading hard, it's a positive fact that I've scarcely seen his face.”
“That looks as if he wasn't over fond of reading, then, eh?—umph!”
“You may put that interpretation upon it, certainly,” replied I, “but mind, I don't say it's the true one. I consider it would not be right in me to tell tales out of school; besides there's nothing to tell—everybody knows Frank Fairlegh's a good fellow—ask Lawless—ask Curtis.”
“Umph! Lawless? what? that wild young scamp who goes tearing about the country in a tandem, as if a gig with one horse wasn't dangerous enough, without putting on a second to make the thing positively terrific? he must be badly off for something to do, if he can find no better amusement than trying how nearly he can break a fool's neck, without doing it quite;—umph! Curtis—why, that's the name of the young gentleman—very gentle—who, the landlord tells me, has just been rusticated for insulting Dr. Doublechin, and fastening a muzzle and chain on one of the men they call 'bull-dogs,' saying, forsooth, that it wasn't safe to let such ferocious animals go about loose—nice acquaintance Mr. Frank Fairlegh seems to choose, and you know the quotation, 'Noscitur a sociis'.”
“Oh,” replied I, “but he has others; I have seen him in company with Mr. Wilford.”
"Wilford? the noted duellist, that scoundrel who has lately shot the son of Sir John Oaklands, as fine a young man as ever I set eyes upon?—for I have often seen him when I was living at Helmstone; if I thought, sir, that Fairlegh was a friend of that man—I'd—I'd—well, sir,” he exclaimed, seeing my eyes fixed upon him with a degree of interest I could not conceal, “it's nothing to you, I suppose, what I may intend to do by Mr. Frank Fairlegh! I may be his grandfather for anything you can tell to the contrary; and I may choose to cut him off with a shilling, I imagine, without its affecting you in any way—umph?”
“Scarcely so, Mr. Frampton,” replied I, turning away to hide an irrepressible smile, “if it is in consequence of what I have told you that you are angry with poor Frank.”