The host then proceeded to explain that, chancing to know a number of men in the City who were in the best possible position to have sound information as to the rise and fall of stocks and shares, the thought one day struck him that he might profit by such opportunities. Accordingly he let it be known that he had a certain amount of money which it was his intention to try and increase by careful speculation. Tips poured in upon him--he was entreated to become a bear of this and a bull of that--people appeared anxious to put him into all sorts of ventures, and he became the recipient of much "exclusive" information. His idea of speculation, however, was original. Told to buy a certain stock he invariably sold it; warned of a coming fall, he speculated for a rise; in fact it became his practice to act in a manner exactly contrary to that indicated by his many advisers, whom, meanwhile, he kept in ignorance of what he was doing. By this curious and original method in a comparatively short time he accumulated a comfortable fortune, and then decided to abandon speculation and spend the rest of his days in prosperous ease. As this shrewd and fortunate speculator explained to his friend, human nature must be reckoned with in all things, and in a vast number of cases those who give tips are interested in the particular stocks which they not unnaturally seek to bolster up--a really good thing does not need much puffing. On the other hand, regular schemes to depress certain stocks are often engineered in a most clever manner, adverse rumours being spread as to a probable fall in order to facilitate large purchases at a small figure; these having been made, the stock rises with startling rapidity. The best maxim for speculators, not well versed in City matters, is to take plenty of advice, and in the vast majority of cases to operate in an exactly contrary way. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 6: An excellent account of this adventurer is given by that gifted writer Mr. Theodore Andrea Cook, in _Eclipse and O'Kelly_, published two years ago.] VI Colonel Mellish--His early life and accomplishments--His equipage--A great gambler--£40,000 at a throw!--Posting--Mellish's racing career--His duel--In the Peninsula--Rural retirement and death--Colonel John Mordaunt--His youthful freaks--An ardent card-player--Becomes aide-de-camp to the Nawab of Oude--Anecdotes--Death from a duel--Zoffany in India and his picture of Mordaunt's cock-fight--Anecdotes of cock-fighting. Amongst the sporting characters of the past who flung their fortunes to the winds at the gaming-table or on the race-course there were not a few who were possessed of considerable intelligence and charm. Such a one was the handsome, gallant, and accomplished Colonel Mellish, beyond all doubt the Admirable Crichton of his day.