The young man gave his companion a look that almost startled him, then added, "If I am fooled, Mont, there will be a just retribution."
"Good-heavens! don't look like that, boy; you would freeze a fellow to the very joints and marrow; besides, there is no need of it now, when you have everything your own way. Why, man, the old dame has thrown over Sir Arthur."
"Egad, I thought as much, from the way the old clown, glared at me last night at the Plough and Harrow."
"Plough and Harrow! what the deuce took you there?"
"To see the country lasses have a glass of hot punch, and hear the orations of the country squires."
"And my would-be brother was representing his fair estate."
"Representing the gout, more like, for as he got tipsy I could see him wince, and when an old yeoman, with a big red head, made light by the whiskey, fell over our friend, he roared louder than a calf."
"It's all up with him and my precious mother, at any rate," said Montague Arnold, twisting his waxed moustache into the most artistic style, and laughing vociferously.
Wine was now passed around, and both gentlemen became extremely amiable. Family matters were discussed and confidences were exchanged, and Montague Arnold received a cheque for five thousand dollars "to straighten him out once more," as he expressed it, until he could make some settlement of his own financial resources.
Montague Arnold was not in want. He was possessed of a large income, but owing to his extravagant living and dissipated habits, his demands were daily becoming more pressing; and when he had staked ten thousand dollars at the gambling table and lost, nothing but the helping hand of Hubert Tracy could save him.