CHAPTER II.
"How grateful does this scene appear
To us, who might too justly fear,
We never should have seen again
Aught bright but armour on the plain."
Halifax.
The Hon. Philip Martindale, as we have said, went to bed and to sleep, forgetful of the fact of having exchanged cards with a fierce-looking dandy at the house of Sir Gilbert Sampson. The awful truth, however, was brought to his memory the following morning while he was sitting at breakfast. A messenger came, requiring the ear of the Hon. Philip Martindale immediately on very important business. The young gentleman paid ready attention to the messenger who brought a very polite message from one of the police-offices, stating that the magistrate requested Mr. Philip's attendance at the office as soon as possible. The message being urgent as well as polite, Mr. Philip went with the messenger. The magistrate very politely received the young gentleman in his private room. After a suitable preface of grave looks and wise truisms, the worthy magistrate very gravely said to Mr. Philip:
"I am sorry, sir, that I am placed under the disagreeable necessity of binding you over to keep the peace towards Isaac Solomons, junior, of St. Mary Axe."
With the most unaffected astonishment the young gentleman stared and started at the charge, and most seriously and sincerely did he disavow all malice against or even any knowledge of the person of Isaac Solomons, junior, of St. Mary Axe. His memory, however, was presently refreshed by the well-informed magistrate; and when he was questioned about the exchange of cards with a young gentleman at a party on the preceding evening, he forthwith drew from his pocket-book a very economical piece of card whereon, its edges having been previously or subsequently gilded, was engraved in good broad old English characters,
Mr. Isaac Solomons; and in a snug sly corner, very small neatly-engraved character, was St. Mary Axe. This was proof positive. There was no denying or evading the fact, that he had received this card with the intention of making an arrangement for a duel with its owner. Now, had all the duelling-pistols in England been loaded, primed, cocked, and pointed to the person of the Hon. Philip Martindale, ready to be discharged into the head, heart, or any other vital part of the said honorable gentleman, he could not have felt more completely horrified than he did, at being detected with a card of Mr. Isaac Solomons, of St. Mary Axe. In a moment the thought rushed into his mind, that all the morning and daily evening papers would be employed in communicating to the world an affair of honor between the Hon. Philip Martindale and Mr. Isaac Solomons, junior, of St. Mary Axe. This was really mortifying, after the great pains which Mr. Philip had taken to keep up his dignity, and to support the glory and honor of his rank. It availed nothing that he had kept at a lordly distance the former companions of his legal studies, and that he had laid bets with dukes and lost money to black-legs: there was no pleasure to be enjoyed from these delightful reflections, so long as it was now likely to be proclaimed to all the world that the Hon. Philip Martindale had an affair of honor with Mr. Isaac Solomons, junior, of St. Mary Axe.
All these sorrows arose from the Hon. Philip Martindale having mistaken his own peculiar talents and capacities. Mr. Isaac Solomons, junior, was the son of Mr. Isaac Solomons, senior. The old gentleman was one of those persons who did not think the affairs of the Hon. Philip Martindale sufficiently promising to accommodate him with a loan. The young gentleman had frequently met Mr. Philip at Epsom, Newmarket, and other places, where noblemen and gentlemen make large bets to keep up their own dignity, and to improve the breed of English horses. Mr. Philip, finding that persons of high rank gave countenance to these sports, thought of course that it was his business also to take part in the same; but being at the same time of very aristocratic feelings, he wished to keep inferior people at a distance: this, however, he could not always well effect. He found himself incompetent to the task of sustaining, with due propriety, the double character of blackguard and gentleman. Some have succeeded very well in this attempt, but Philip Martindale had not a sufficient stock of impudence for the purpose: he was, therefore, exposed frequently to mortifications, which seriously annoyed him. The person of Mr. Isaac Solomons, junior, he remembered very well; but who or what he was, Mr. Philip did not know: he merely took him for a gentleman. Sufficiently mortified, therefore, was he by this development.