'Ay, ay! a pleasant fellow, I believe ?' 'A roaring dog, master--one after my own heart--hot upon the matter too--red hot.' 'So I have heard,' replied Sir John, carelessly.

'You don't happen to know his trade, do you ?' 'He wouldn't say,' cried Hugh.

'He keeps it secret.' 'Ha ha!' laughed Sir John.

'A strange fancy--a weakness with some persons--you'll know it one day, I dare swear.' 'We're intimate already,' said Hugh.
'Quite natural! And have been drinking together, eh ?' pursued Sir John.
'Did you say what place you went to in company, when you left Lord George's ?' Hugh had not said or thought of saying, but he told him; and this inquiry being followed by a long train of questions, he related all that had passed both in and out of doors, the kind of people he had seen, their numbers, state of feeling, mode of conversation, apparent expectations and intentions.

His questioning was so artfully contrived, that he seemed even in his own eyes to volunteer all this information rather than to have it wrested from him; and he was brought to this state of feeling so naturally, that when Mr Chester yawned at length and declared himself quite wearied out, he made a rough kind of excuse for having talked so much.
'There--get you gone,' said Sir John, holding the door open in his hand.
'You have made a pretty evening's work.