You should spare him, Etherington--he is not your match--wants both judgment and temper." "Tell him so, Jekyl," answered the Earl, "and his proud Scotch stomach will be up in an instant, and he will pay you with a shot for your pains .-- Why, he thinks himself cock of the walk, this strutting bantam, notwithstanding the lesson I gave him before--And what do you think ?--He has the impudence to talk about my attentions to Lady Binks as inconsistent with the prosecution of my suit to his sister! Yes, Hal--this awkward Scotch laird, that has scarce tact enough to make love to a ewe-milker, or, at best, to some daggletailed soubrette, has the assurance to start himself as my rival!" "Then, good-night to St.Ronan's!--this will be a fatal dinner to him .-- Etherington, I know by that laugh you are bent on mischief--I have a great mind to give him a hint." "I wish you would," answered the Earl; "it would all turn to my account." "Do you defy me ?--Well, if I meet him, I will put him on his guard." The friends parted; and it was not long ere Jekyl encountered Mowbray on one of the public walks.
"You dine with Etherington to-day ?" said the Captain--"Forgive me, Mr.
Mowbray, if I say one single word--Beware." "Of what should I beware, Captain Jekyl," answered Mowbray, "when I dine with a friend of your own, and a man of honour ?" "Certainly Lord Etherington is both, Mr.Mowbray; but he loves play, and is too hard for most people." "I thank you for your hint, Captain Jekyl--I am a raw Scotchman, it is true; but yet I know a thing or two.

Fair play is always presumed amongst gentlemen; and that taken for granted, I have the vanity to think I need no one's caution on the subject, not even Captain Jekyl's, though his experience must needs be so much superior to mine." "In that case, sir," said Jekyl, bowing coldly, "I have no more to say, and I hope there is no harm done .-- Conceited coxcomb!" he added, mentally, as they parted, "how truly did Etherington judge of him, and what an ass was I to intermeddle!--I hope Etherington will strip him of every feather!" He pursued his walk in quest of Tyrrel, and Mowbray proceeded to the apartments of the Earl, in a temper of mind well suited to the purposes of the latter, who judged of his disposition accurately when he permitted Jekyl to give his well-meant warning.

To be supposed, by a man of acknowledged fashion, so decidedly inferior to his antagonist--to be considered as an object of compassion, and made the subject of a good-boy warning, was gall and bitterness to his proud spirit, which, the more that he felt a conscious inferiority in the arts which they all cultivated, struggled the more to preserve the footing of at least apparent equality.
Since the first memorable party at piquet, Mowbray had never hazarded his luck with Lord Etherington, except for trifling stakes; but his conceit led him to suppose that he now fully understood his play, and, agreeably to the practice of those who have habituated themselves to gambling, he had every now and then felt a yearning to try for his revenge.

He wished also to be out of Lord Etherington's debt, feeling galled under a sense of pecuniary obligation, which hindered his speaking his mind to him fully upon the subject of his flirtation with Lady Binks, which he justly considered as an insult to his family, considering the footing on which the Earl seemed desirous to stand with Clara Mowbray.

From these obligations a favourable evening might free him, and Mowbray was, in fact, indulging in a waking dream to this purpose, when Jekyl interrupted him.