“I do mean to insinuate something dishonorable against you; I mean to say that you have now in your possession damning proofs of your guilt and your meanness. Clear yourself if you can.” With a contemptuous sneer, Mr. Singleton Sloper replied: “Upon my word, I shall not take the trouble to argue with a madman. I must leave you, my lord, for the present; we shall meet again shortly, and then I will give you or you shall give me satisfaction.” “You shall not leave this apartment, sir, till I have satisfied myself of the extent of your treachery. You have conspired with that young thief to defraud me, and I saw you divide the plunder; you have my note now in your possession.” Mr. Singleton Sloper had not much of a character to lose, but what little he had he was desirous of preserving. Seeing that Lord Trimmerstone was resolute, and knowing that his own case was really a bad one, he endeavoured to soften matters down as well as he could; and with that cowardice which continually attends guilt, he pleaded guilty to the accusation, and urged his own necessity as a plea. Lord Trimmerstone should have spurned such a caitiff from him with contempt; but Lord Trimmerstone recollected that his own dear character was as much implicated as that of his friend, Mr. Singleton Sloper: they were, in fact, in each other’s power. Then did his lordship gradually descend from his high and towering attitude, and feel that he himself was but one degree more respectable than that very Sloper against whom he was beginning to launch the bolts of his mighty indignation, and the shafts of his withering contempt. Now there was this difference between the Earl of Trimmerstone and Mr. Singleton Sloper: to wit, that the first-mentioned personage had been led rather by what he considered fashion or fashionable practice from one degree of foolery to another; but the latter was habitually and constitutionally of low and mean habits. Lord Trimmerstone was not essentially and constitutionally of low habits, but he had been by various circumstances drawn into the vortex. He was a careless rather than a weak man, and he had fallen into bad hands. Singleton Sloper was what may be designated a moral sloven, a man of no mind, and of little feeling; incapable of any thing great or good; one of the condescending among the patricians, and never stooping but to something that was low. These two personages were on the whole well met. The difference certainly was in favor of his lordship, but the difference was not great. His lordship felt this in their rising quarrel, and was therefore under the necessity of bearing patiently that which otherwise he must have resented indignantly.