Tom Dashall, and with such recommendations it will not be wondered at if he should become also the friend of Tally-ho; for, although living in the height of fashionable splendour, his mind was at all times in consonance with the lines which precede this chapter; yet none could be more ready to lend a hand in any pleasant party in pursuit of a bit of _gig.

A mill at Moulsey Hurst--a badger-bait, or bear-bait--a main at the Cock-pit--a smock-race_--or a scamper to the Tipping hunt, ultimately claimed his attention; while upon all occasions he was an acute observer of life and character.
"His years but young, but his experience old, His heart unmellow'd, though his judgment ripe, And in a word, (for far behind his worth Come all the praises that we now bestow) He is complete in conduct and in mind, With all good grace, to grace a gentleman." ~42~~But dinner is over, and we must now accompany our triumvirate to the drawing-room, where we find them seated with bottles, glasses, &c.
determined to make a quiet evening after the fatigues of the journey, and with a view to prepare themselves for the more arduous, and to Tally-ho more interesting, pursuits in the new world, for such he almost considered London.
"Yes," said Sparkle, addressing himself to Bob, with whom a little previous conversation had almost rendered him familiar, "London is a world within itself; it is, indeed, the only place to see life--it is the "_multum in parvo_," as the old song says, "Would you see the world in little, Ye curious here repair;" it is the acme of perfection, the "_summum bonum_" of style---indeed, there is a certain affectation of style from the highest to the lowest individual." "You are a merry and stylish fellow," said Tom; we should have been hipp'd without you, there is a fund of amusement in you at all times." "You are a bit of a wag," replied Sparkle, "but I am up to your gossip, and can serve you out in your own style." "Every body," says Tallyho, "appears to live in style." "Yes," continued Sparkle, "_living in style_ is one of the most essential requisites for a residence in London; but I'll give you my idea of living in style, which, by many, is literally nothing more than keeping up appearances at other people's expence: for instance, a Duchess conceives it to consist in taking her breakfast at three o'clock in the afternoon--dining at eight--playing at Faro till four the next morning--supping at five, and going to bed at six--and to eat green peas and peaches in January--in making a half-curtsey at the creed, and a whole one to a scoundrel--in giving fifty guineas to an exotic capon for a pit-ticket--and treating the deserved claims of a parental actor with contempt--to lisp for the mere purpose of appearing singular, and to seem completely ignorant of the Mosaic law--to be in the reverse of extremes--to laugh when she could weep, and weep when she could .dance and be merry--to leave her compliment cards with her acquaintance, whom at the same moment she wishes she may never see again--to speak of the community ~43~~with marked disrespect, and to consider the sacrament a bore!" "Admirable!" said Tom.
"Wonderful, indeed!" exclaimed Tallyho.
"Aye, aye, London is full of wonders--there is a general and insatiate appetite for the marvellous; but let us proceed: Now we'll take the reverse of the picture.

The Duke thinks he does things in style, by paying his debts of honour contracted at the gaming-table, and but very few honourable debts--by being harsh and severe to a private supplicant, while he is publicly a liberal subscriber to a person he never saw--by leaving his vis-a-vis at the door of a well-known courtesan, in order to have the credit of an intrigue--in making use of an optical glass for personal inspection, though he can ascertain the horizon without any--by being or seeming to be, every thing that is in opposition to nature and virtue--in counting the lines in the Red Book, and carefully watching the importation of _figurantes_ from the Continent--in roundly declaring that a man of fashion is a being of a superior order, and ought to be amenable only to himself--in jumbling ethics and physics together, so as to make them destroy each other--in walking arm in arm with a sneering jockey--talking loudly any thing but sense--and in burning long letters without once looking at their contents;...

and so much for my Lord Duke." "Go along Bob!" exclaimed Tom.
Tallyho conceiving himself addressed by this, looked up with an air of surprise and enquiry, which excited the risibility of Dashall and Sparkle, till it was explained to him as a common phrase in London, with which he would soon become more familiar.

Sparkle continued.
"The gay young Peerling, who is scarcely entitled to the honours and immunities of manhood, is satisfied he is _doing things in style_, by raising large sums of money on _post-obit_ bonds, at the very moderate premium of 40 per cent .-- in _queering_ the clergyman at his father's table, and leaving the marks of his finger and thumb on the article of matrimony in his aunt's prayer-book--in kicking up a row at the theatre, when he knows he has some roaring bullies at his elbow, though humble and dastardly when alone--in keeping a dashing _impure_, who publicly squanders away his money, and privately laughs at his follies--in buying a phaeton as high as a two pair of stairs ~44~~window, and a dozen of spanking bays at Tattersall's, and in dashing through St.James's Street, Pall Mall, Piccadilly, and Hyde Park, thus accompanied and accoutred, amidst the contumelies of the coxcombs and the sighs of the worthy.