CHAPTER VH.
Hr rose late, and aa he waa loanging over his breakfast,
entered Lord Bagshot and the Baron. Already the young
Duke began to experience one of the gamester's corses,
the intmsive society of those of whom yon are ashamed.
Eight-and- forty hours j^o. Lord Bagshot nonld no more
have dared to call on the Duke of St. James than to call
at the Pavihon ; and now, with that reckless want of tact
which marks the innately vulgar, he seemed to triumph in
their nnhallowed intimat^y, and lounging iuto his Grace's
apartment with that half-sbulHing, half-swaggering sir in-
dioative of the ' eove,' hut cocked, and thumbs in his great
coat pockets, cast his complacent eye around, and praised
his Grace's ' rooms.' Lord Bagshot, who for the occasional
notice of the Dute of St. James had been so long a ready
and patient butt, now appeared to assume a higher cha-
tacfer, and addressed hia friend in a tone and manner which
were aothoriscd by the equality of their rank and the sjm
pathy of their tastes. If this change had taken place in
the conduct of the Visconnt, it was not a singular one.
The Duke also, to his surprise, found himself addressing
his former butt in a very different style from that which
be had assumed in the ball-room of Doncaater, In Tainhe



THE YOUNG DUKE. 239

tried to rallj, in yain he tried to snub. It was indeed in yain.
He no longer possessed any right to express his contempt of
his companion. That contempt, indeed, he still felt. He
despised Lord Bagshot still, but he also despised himself.
