The respectable solicitors of the Company
had retired, long since, after having secured payment of a most
respectable bill; and had given place to the firm of dubious law-agents
of whom I had that evening seen a partner. How the retiring partners from
India had been allowed to withdraw, and to bring fortunes along with
them, was a mystery to Mr. Frederick Bayham. The great Indian
millionnaire was in his, F. B.'s eyes, "a confounded mahogany-coloured
heathen humbug." These fine parties which the Colonel was giving, and
that fine carriage which was always flaunting about the Park with poor
Mrs. Clive and the Campaigner, and the nurse and the baby, were, in F.
B.'s opinion, all decoys and shams. He did not mean to say that the meals
were not paid, and that the Colonel had to plunder for his horses' corn;
but he knew that Sherrick, and the attorney, and the manager, insisted
upon the necessity of giving these parties, and keeping up this state and
grandeur, and opined that it was at the special instance of these
advisers that the Colonel had contested the borough for which he was now
returned.
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