Mrs.Freemantle had sent him the invitation nearly a fortnight ago, and he understood there was to be an elaborate dinner party.

He did not know it for a fact, but he was in hopes of meeting the expiring Lord Chancellor.

He considered it to be his duty never to throw away such a chance.

He would in all respects have preferred Mr.Freemantle's dinner in Eaton Place, dull and heavy though it might probably be, to the chance of Lord Chiltern's companions at Moroni's.

Whatever might be the faults of our hero, he was not given to what is generally called dissipation by the world at large,--by which the world means self-indulgence.