“Unfavorable construction! Now, pray, my lord, as you are so very ingenious a personage, will you be so kind as to enlighten my ignorance so far as to tell me what you would call a favorable construction of such an elegant and accomplished feat as that which you performed last night, in company with that paragon of wit and elegance, Mr. Singleton Sloper? Only suppose that you wished to communicate that truly noble and gentleman-like transaction to the world through the medium of the press, and suppose the very kind and accommodating reporters were to give you leave to use your own language, how would you express yourself? In the first place, perhaps, you would think it an unfavorable construction to say that you were in company with Mr. Singleton Sloper. Or, perhaps, if you could not conscientiously suppress the fact, you would attribute the same to your most humane and kind consideration in taking notice of a vulgar blockhead, whom nobody else would deign to honor with their company and countenance. And pray, my lord, what is the most favorable construction your lordship would put upon the simple and silly fact of reeling about the streets in a state of intoxication? I suppose you would take credit to yourself for being above the milksop system now so fashionable; and magnanimously reverting to the practice of the good old times, by making a beast of yourself. And your knocking and ringing at the doors you no doubt designed as a gentle admonition to your neighbours, that they should not spend so much of their precious time in slothful sleep. There, my lord, is that construction favorable enough?” His lordship smiled, and said: “Perfectly so, sir; perhaps rather too flattering.” The old gentleman smiled not when his lordship smiled; but changing a sneer for a frown, he said: “And what construction, my lord, is favorable enough to your taste to be put on the fact of your money, or rather your wife’s money, lost at the gaming-table?” His lordship started, and looked pale; and the amount of his loss came over him like a dream. “Yes,” continued the old gentleman, “I will totally acquit you of any intention of losing your money; but can you acquit yourself of a mean and contemptible design of plundering a simple and untutored boy, by the assistance of that contemptible fellow, Singleton Sloper?” “Mr. Singleton Sloper, sir,” replied the Earl, “is a gentleman of good family.” “So much the worse for his family, for they have reason to be ashamed of him; and you, my lord, would never have taken notice of him, or associated with him, but for purposes of gaming. I know the whole transaction. I know that you had encouraged Sloper to induce that simple boy to sit down and play with you, and that you made yourself sure of repaying yourself by his means for the losses which you had yourself sustained. You cannot deny the fact; and I think you cannot put a very favorable construction upon it.”