sudden ascendency; he excited no small attention among men of fashion--great numbers of whom quickly recognized in him one very fit to become their butt and their dupe. What signified it to men secure of their own position in society, that they were seen openly associating with one so outrageously absurd in his dress--and vulgar and ignorant beyond all example? So long as he bled freely, and "_trotted out_," briskly and willingly, his eccentricities could be not merely tolerated, but humored. Take, for instance, the gay and popular MARQUIS GANTS-JAUNES DE MILLEFLEURS; but he is worth a word or two of description, because of the position he had contrived to acquire and retain, and the influence which he managed to exercise over a considerable portion of London society. The post he was anxious to secure was that of the leader of _ton_; and he wished it to appear that that was the sole object of his ambition. While, however, he affected to be entirely engrossed by such matters as devising new and exquisite variations of dress, equipage, and cookery, he was, in reality, bent upon graver pursuits--upon gratifying his own licentious tastes and inclinations, with secrecy and impunity. He really despised _folly_, cultivating and practising only _vice_; in which he was, in a manner, an epicure. He was now about his forty-second year; had been handsome; was of bland and fascinating address; variously accomplished; of exquisite tact; of most refined taste. There was, however, a slight fulness and puffiness about his features--an expression in his eye which spoke of _satiety_--and spoke truly. He was a very proud, selfish, heartless person; but these qualities he contrived to disguise from many of even his most intimate associates. An object of constant anxiety to him, was to ingratiate himself with the younger and weaker branches of the aristocracy, in order to secure a distinguished _status_ in society, and he succeeded. To gain this point, he taxed all his resources; never were so exquisitely blended, as in his instance, with a view to securing his _influence_, the qualities of dictator and parasite: he always appeared the _agreeable equal_ of those whom, for his life, he dared not seriously have offended. He had no fortune; no visible means of making money--did not sensibly sponge upon his friends, nor fall into conspicuous embarrassments; yet he always lived in luxury.--Without money, he in some inconceivable manner always contrived to be in the possession of money's worth. He had a magical power of soothing querulous tradesmen. He had a knack of always keeping himself, his _clique_, his sayings and doings, before the eye of the public, in such a manner as to satisfy it that he was the acknowledged leader of fashion. Yet was it in truth no such thing--but only a _false_ fashion; there being all the difference between him, and a man of real consequence, in society, that there is between mock and real pearl--between paste and diamond.