There are many such young men about town--sharp and able in all affairs except their own. No one knows the world better, nor judges of character more truly, than your half-beggared _roué_. From all these, Baron Levy obtained much the same testimonials: he was ridiculed as a would-be dandy, but respected as a very responsible man of business, and rather liked as a friendly accommodating species of the Sir Epicure Mammon, who very often did what were thought handsome, liberal things; and "in short," said one of these experienced referees, "he is the best fellow going--for a money-lender! You may always rely on what he promises, and he is generally very forbearing and indulgent to _us_ of good society; perhaps for the same reason that our tailors are;--to send one of us to prison would hurt his custom. His foible is to be thought a gentleman. I believe, much as I suppose he loves money, he would give up half his fortune rather than do anything for which we could cut him. He allows a pension of three hundred a-year to Lord S----. True; he was his man of business for twenty years, and, before then, S---- was rather a prudent fellow, and had fifteen thousand a-year. He has helped on, too, many a clever young man;--the best boroughmonger you ever knew. He likes having friends in Parliament. In fact, of course he is a rogue; but if one wants a rogue, one can't find a pleasanter. I should like to see him on the French stage--a prosperous _Macaire_; Le Maître could hit him off to the life." From information in these more fashionable quarters, gleaned with his usual tact, Randal turned to a source less elevated, but to which he attached more importance. Dick Avenel associated with the Baron--Dick Avenel must be in his clutches. Now Randal did justice to that gentleman's practical shrewdness. Moreover, Avenel was by profession a man of business. He must know more of Levy than these men of pleasure could; and, as he was a plain-spoken person, and evidently honest, in the ordinary acceptation of the word, Randal did not doubt that out of Dick Avenel he should get the truth.