The charming well-bred lady thus communicating her knowledge of Crook’s cards, I need not say he was soon reduced to a state of insolvency; and as the party was too exclusive and fashionable to extend their hospitality to those who had not the means of paying, it soon broke up, and we returned to our rooms, I somewhat wiser and Crook a great deal poorer.

Such was the adventure which came to my mind when I saw in the Queen’s Bench at Westminster the trial of “Boyle and Lawson” against the Times for calumnious insinuations against the character of a lady and others, suggesting that they obtained false letters of credit to enable them to cheat and defraud.

This was the select party which Norwich society had lionized—­the great unknown to whom we had been introduced, and where Crook had been cheated out of his travelling-money!

The lady was the fair plaintiff in this action, seeking for the rehabilitation of her character; and she succeeded in effecting that object so far as the outlay of one farthing would enable her to do so, for that was all the jury gave her, and it was exactly that amount too much.  Her character was worth more to her in Crook’s time.

Speaking of a man running society on his fees—­that is, endeavouring to cope with the rich on the mere earnings of a barrister, however large they may be—­I have met with several instances which would have preserved me from the same fate had I ever been cursed with such an inclination.  The number of successful men at the Bar who have been ruined by worshipping the idol which is called “Society,” and which is perhaps a more disastrous deity to worship than any other, is legion.  This is one unhappy example, the only one I intend to give.

While I was living in Bond Street, and working very hard, I had little time and no inclination to lounge about amongst the socially great; I had, indeed, no money to spend on great people.  The entrance-fee into the portals of the smart society temple is heavy, especially for a working-man; and so found the bright particular star who had long held his place amidst the splendid social galaxy, and then disappeared into a deeper obscurity than that from which he had emerged, to be seen no more for ever.

He was a Queen’s Counsel, a brilliant advocate in a certain line of business, and a popular, agreeable, intellectual, and amusing companion.  He obtained a seat in Parliament, and a footing in Society which made him one of its selected and principal lions.  In every Society paper, amongst its most fashionable intelligence, there was he; and Society hardly seemed to be able to get along without him.

One Sunday afternoon I was reading in my little room when this agreeable member of the elite called upon me.  My astonishment was great, because at that time of my career not only did I not receive visitors, but such a visitor was beyond all expectation, and I wondered, when his name was announced, what could have brought him, he so great and I comparatively nothing.  It is true I had known him for some time, but I knew him so little that I thought of him as a most estimable great man whose career was leading him to the highest distinction in his profession.