"Indeed, Mr Peacock, if you remember, I refused to play with you; and, so far from wishing to offend you, I now come on purpose to compliment you on your excellent acting, and to inquire if you have heard anything lately of your young friend, Mr Vivian. "Vivian?--never heard the name, sir. Vivian! Pooh, you are trying to hoax me; very good." "I assure you, Mr Peac"-- "St--st--How the deuce did you know that I was once called Peac--that is, people called me Peac--A friendly nickname, no more--drop it, sir, or you 'touch me with noble anger!'" "Well, well; 'the rose, by any name, will smell as sweet,' as the Swan, this time at least, judiciously observes. But Mr Vivian, too, seems to have other names at his disposal. I mean a young, dark, handsome man--or rather boy--with whom I met you in company by the roadside, one morning." "O--h!" said Mr Peacock, looking much relieved, "I know whom you mean, though I don't remember to have had the pleasure of seeing you before. No; I have not heard anything of the young man lately. I wish I did know something of him. He was a 'gentleman in my own way.' Sweet Will has hit him off to a hair!-- 'The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's eye, tongue, sword.' Such a hand with a cue!--you should have seen him seek 'the bubble reputation at the _cannon's_ mouth!' I may say, (continued Mr Peacock, emphatically,) that he was a regular trump--trump!" he reiterated with a start, as if the word had stung him--"trump! he was a BRICK!" Then fixing his eyes on me, dropping his arms, interlacing his fingers, in the manner recorded of Talma in the celebrated "Qu'en dis-tu?" he resumed in a hollow voice, slow and distinct-- "When--saw--you--him,--young m--m--a--n--nnn?" Finding the tables thus turned on myself, and not willing to give Mr Peac-- any clue to poor Vivian--who thus appeared, to my great satisfaction, to have finally dropped an acquaintance more versatile than reputable--I contrived, by a few evasive sentences, to keep Mr Peac--'s curiosity at a distance, till he was summoned in haste to change his attire for the domestic drama. And so we parted. CHAPTER LVII.