_Imprimis_ he alloweth his mustaches to grow, which giveth him the look of an officer-lover in a farce at the Eagle, but assimilateth to the foreigner in nothing. He delighteth in brutal conduct to the native functionaries, which he taketh to be a fine display of national spirit, and thinketh that they are impressed with respect for him thereby. He calleth the _vin ordinaire_ “rot,” but drinketh brandy to intoxication. He shouteth with hoarse joyless laughter at French peculiarities, and thinketh that, by so doing, he displayeth a fine-natured _naïveté_. He deemeth the greatest discovery ever made to be that of a tavern whereat British stout is retailed; and thinketh that he maketh a joke of excellent pungency when he saith “Waterloo,” to a French soldier. He careth not for the indigenous hotels, but loveth better the English boarding-house, where he can have “a good John Bull joint, and no French kickshaws:” John Bull being represented generally as a vulgar top-booted man verging on apoplexy, with, evidently, few ideas of refinement, obstinate and hard-natured; but the Gent conceiveth that upon occasions it is ennobling to profess attachment to him. [Illustration] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XII. NOTES OF CERTAIN OTHER GENTS. THERE is a species of Gent who, moving only in a third or fourth rate sphere, goes to a party in a white cravat and turned up wristbands, and carries his hat into the room because he had heard that Gentlemen do so. He is generally an immense card. We chanced to stand next to a specimen of this kind, one evening, in a quadrille, and the only remark we heard him make was inquiring of his partner, after two or three false starts, whether she preferred dancing on a carpet or the bare boards: to which the young lady replied, having looked down to see what the floor was (that she might not “put her foot in it,” figuratively speaking), that she preferred a carpet, she thought: and this was the beginning and end of the conversation. [Illustration]