he was perhaps a little less hasty in giving his opinions about the English. As for me, it has always been a delightful recollection, this deserved lesson to the Duc de Gramont.’ While Mr. O’Bearn was telling us his stories, the tables had gradually become deserted, and now the small group of his listeners took their leave on this or that pretext. We went away endeavouring to attract no notice, asking ourselves how people could take so much trouble and lavish so much money to arrive at a result absolutely _nil_. Each member of this gathering had appeared to ask himself during and after the dinner: ‘How and why am I here?’ ‘Well, have you got the key to the puzzle?’ said Griffiths, as we were leaving the house. ‘This man, whose opulence causes surprise even here, where everything is pomp and splendour and extravagance--this man is simply a gambler. We have still got in England some samples of those characters of the bygone century. After Charles II. left to his people the terrible gambling mania, to be a gamester became, as it were, an avowable profession. You know all that has been said of the youth of the Prince of Wales, of his passion for gambling, which for him had such terrible consequences. The most deplorable effect of this passion was to gather around his royal highness a set of people whose bow it would have taken some courage to acknowledge outside the precincts of Carlton House. It was sufficient to be a gambler, and what they called a magnificent gambler, to have the doors of the royal residence thrown open to you. These gentlemen, after the journeys they made annually through England, much as the magistrates went on circuit each session, as a rule took their flight thence for their European tours. They brought back immense harvests. Mr. Raily and his guest, Mr. O’Bearn, belong to the number.