When the engineer, one night, was walking in Ranelagh Gardens, then a fashionable place of resort, with Mrs. Smeaton, he observed an elderly lady and gentleman fixing their eyes upon him with a persistent gaze. At last they stopped, and the Duchess said, "Sir, I don't know who you are, or what you are, but so strongly do you resemble my poor dear Gay that we _must_ be acquainted; you shall go home and sup with us; and if the minds of the two men accord as do the countenances, you will find two cheerful old folks who can love you well; and I think (or you are a hypocrite), you can as well deserve it." [Sidenote: A guest at the Duke's.] The invitation thus frankly given was as frankly accepted, and proved the beginning of a friendship which continued cordial and uninterrupted so long as the Duke and Duchess lived. During Smeaton's visits a game at cards was sometimes proposed. Smeaton, however, disliked cards, and could never devote his attention to the game. On one occasion the stakes were already high, and it fell to Smeaton's lot to double them, when, neglecting to deal the cards, he appeared to be busily engaged in making some abstruse calculations on paper, which he placed upon the table. The Duchess asked eagerly what they referred to. Smeaton calmly replied, "You will recollect that the field in which my house stands measures about five acres three roods and seven perches, which, at thirty years' purchase, will be just my stake; and if your grace will make a duke of me, I presume the winner will not dislike my mortgage." The jesting lesson had its effect, and they never played again, except for the veriest trifle. [Sidenote: A benevolent character.] Smeaton, on one occasion, obtained a public appointment for a clerk in whom he placed the greatest confidence, and, conjointly with a friend, became security for him to a considerable amount. Not long afterwards this man committed the crime of forgery, was detected, and given up to justice. "The same post," says Mrs. Dickson, "brought news of the melancholy transaction, of the man's compunction and danger, of the claim of the bond forfeited, and of the refusal of the other person to pay the moiety. Being present when he read his letters, which arrived at a period of Mrs. Smeaton's declining health, so entirely did the command of himself second his anxious attention to her, that no emotion was visible on their perusal, nor, till all was put into the best train possible, did a word or look betray the exquisite distress it occasioned him. In the interim all which could soothe the remorse of a prisoner, every means which could save (which did, at least, from public execution), were exerted for him, with a characteristic benevolence, active and unobtrusive." [Sidenote: Not to be bought.]