If you had an opera girl to keep, as I have--and a devilish expensive appendage the affectionate jade is--perhaps you might feel a little more Christian sympathy for me than you do.

If you had the expense of my yacht--my large stud at Melton Mowbry and Doncaster, and the yearly deficits in my betting book, besides the never ending train of jockies, grooms, feeders, trainers, _et hoc genus omne_--to meet, it is probable, old boy, you would not feel so boundless an interest, as you say you do, in the peace and welfare of another man's tenantry, and all this at that other man's expense.

You're confoundedly unreasonable, Hickman.

Why feel, or pretend to feel, more for these fellows, their barelegged wives, and ragged brats, than you do for a nobleman of rank, to whom you are deeply indebted.

I mean you no offence, Hickman; you are in other respects an honest fellow enough, and if possessed of only a little less heart, as the times go, and more skill in raising money from these people, you would be invaluable to such a distressed devil as I am.