Volume One—Chapter One.

Amongst the Plungers.

“Hullo! Markworth. How lucky! Why you are just the man I want; you’re ubiquitous, who’d have thought of seeing you in town?” said Tom Hartshorne, of the —th Dragoons, cheerily, as he sauntered late one summer afternoon into a private billiard-room in Oxford-street, where a tall, dark-complexioned, and strikingly-handsome man, was knocking the balls about in his shirt-sleeves, and trying all sorts of fancy shots against the cushions—The sole occupant of the room was he, with the exception of the marker, who was looking on in a desultory sort of way at the strokes of the player from his thronelike chair underneath the scoring board.

“Hullo! Tom, by all that’s holy! And what brings you to Babylon? I left Boulogne last week, and ran up to see what the ‘boys’ were after; so here I am, quite at your service. What can I do for you, Tom? Are you hard up, in a row, or run away with your neighbour’s wife? Unbosom yourself, caro mio.”

“No, I’m all right, old chap; but nothing could be better. By Jove! it’s the very thing!”

“Who? Why? What? Enlighten me, Tom.”

“Well, you see, Markworth, I’ve got to go down to-morrow for my annual week to my mother’s place in Sussex. It will be so awfully slow; just fancy, old chap, a whole week in that dreary old country house, with no company, no shooting, no fishing, no anything! Why, it’s enough to kill a fellow!”

“Poor Tom,” observed Markworth, sympathisingly.

“Yes; but that’s not the worst either, old chap. My mother is very cranky, you know, and the house itself is as dull as ditch-water. You have to go to bed and get up by clockwork; and if one should be late at dinner, or in turning in, why, it is thought more of by the ruling powers than the worst sin in the decalogue. Besides, I have to keep straight and humour the old lady—for I am quite dependent on her until I come of age; and, though she’s very fond of me in her sort of way, she cuts up rough sometimes, and would stop supplies in a moment if I should offend her.”

“Dutiful infant! I pity your sorrows, Tom; but what can I do to help you?”

“I’m just coming to that; but we may as well have a game by the way, while we’re talking.”

“Certainly; how many points shall I give you? The usual number, eh? Score up, fifteen to spot, marker,” he said, turning to the little man, who, with a face of dull impassiveness, was sitting bolt upright, like Neptune with his trident, holding the billiard-rest in a perpendicular position, apparently hearing nothing, although his eyes twinkled every now and then. “You lead, Tom, of course.”

“All right, here goes; but, to return to what we were speaking about. You can help me very much, Markworth.”

“Can I? That’s a good cannon, you mustn’t play all through like that, Tom, or you’ll beat me easily; but, go on, and tell me what you want.”

“Ha! yes—you see I’ve got one saving clause in my predicament. My mother says I may bring some one down with me, and I don’t know who the deuce to take—for any of our fellows would ruin me in half a day with the old lady, by talking slang, or flirting with the maids, or something else.”

“And you want me to go and victimise myself for a week? Much obliged, I’m sure.”

“Nonsense, Markworth. By Jove! that’s a ripping hazard in the middle pocket; you’ve got the red in baulk, too, and the game’s all in your hands. You are really the only fellow I’d ask, and it would be a perfect godsend to have you. It won’t be so dull for the two of us together, and I’m sure you’ll be able to pull me out of many a scrape with the old lady, for she’s just your sort, and you can tackle her like one o’clock; only talk to her about the ‘Ologies’ old country families, and the peerage, and you’ll be all right. She never speaks of anything else. Besides, there’s a Miss Kingscott down there—a governess, or companion, or something of the sort to my sister—whom I’ve never yet seen, as she only came there this year. I daresay you can make love to her.”

“Thank you, especially after the warning about the maids!”

“But you’ll come, won’t you?”

“I can’t promise, Tom. There, that stroke ends the game; let’s finish billiards: they’re too slow. What are you going to do to-night, Tom?”

“A lot of us are going to have a quiet little dinner party at Lane’s. The old colonel has been awfully jolly, and let away nearly the whole squad on leave together. Will you come? There’ll be Harrowby, Miles—in fact all the boys. We’ll have lansquenette afterwards, and then you and I can talk over about running down to the country. Do come, there’s a good fellow.”

“Well, I will; what time do you dine?”

“Sharp seven; so don’t be late.”

“I’ll be there. Ta-ta, now, for I’ve got a lot of letters to write. I’m stopping at the ‘Tavistock’ by the way, in case I don’t turn up and you want to find me.”

They had emerged from the billiard-room, and now stood in the street.

“But you must come, I shall expect you and will take no excuse. I’m going to call on some jolly girls whom I met at the Woolwich hop last night. So good-bye till seven—sharp, mind!”

“All right,” answered the other, as Tom Hartshorne hailed a hansom, and was quickly whirled off to his destination in Bruton Street, where the Miss Inskips, two pretty and fast young ladies of the period, dwelt with their mamma, a widowed dame.

Allynne Markworth was not so much a type, as a specimen, of a curious class of men constantly to be met with in London society, and of whom society knows next to nothing. No one knew where he came from, who were his progenitors, or what he did; and yet he suffered in no respect from this self-same ignorance of the world around him, in which he lived and moved and had his being, as any other of its more regular units.

He always dressed well, lived well, and seemed to have a fair share of the loaves and fishes which Providence often so unequally bestows. Having the entrée of good houses, he knew “everybody,” and everybody knew him; but if you asked any of the men who knew him, and were constantly meeting him about, who Markworth was, the general answer you would get would be, “’Pon my soul, I don’t know.” Perhaps Tom Hartshorne knew more about him and was more intimate with him than anyone else, but even he had long ceased to puzzle his budding brains over any analysis of his friend: he was a “good fellow,” and “a clever fellow, by Jove,” and that was enough for him. Tom, however, never dreamt of calling Markworth by his Christian name, and no one else could have approached that phase of intimacy.

To tell the truth Allynne Markworth lived by his wits. He was a Chevalier d’Industrie in a certain sense of the term, although in a slightly more moral degree; and ran the race set before him by preying on the weaknesses, follies, and ignorances of human nature in the abstract, as evinced amongst his fellows in the concrete.

He was a good billiard player, and knew as well when to hide his play as “any other man.” Many a stray sovereign did he pick up in lives after pool at Phillipps’, even when he could not get a bet on, which he was never loth to take. The Hanover Square Club acknowledged his supremacy at whist, and happy was he who was his partner when guinea points were the rule. Being a good judge of horseflesh, he of course kept a book on the principal events of the year: rare in “hedging” he was seldom known to come out a loser.

With all these little strings to his bow, it is