Select Literature.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IX, Issue 464, 25 March 1867, Page 4

Select Literature.

GENTLEMAN GEOEGE. (Concluded from our last.) I was often allowed to see him, and little by little gathered his mournful his* tory from his own lips, which, joined to the result of enquiries I afterwards made among those who knew him in his prosperity, enabled me to frame the following account of his fall. May it have the effect o? warning others in ' time : Old Squire Scarsdale had been gathered to his fathers twelve months before his nephew, George Scared ale, arrived from •us regiment in India to take possession of Scarsdale Hall and its lordly estates and revenue. Ho was a tine, tall, handsome fellow, a little over thirty years of age, good humored almost to a fault, for he could not bear to say “No” to any one. As a soldier he had won distinction on fields where all were brave, and for gentlemanly bearing few could equal him. It was natural aud right that he should call his friends around him on his arrival in England, and bid them rejoice with him at the good fortune which had befallen him. Indeed, had he not invited them, they would have flocked around the once needy captaij of sepoys; and many did come uninvited to the hall. More than ■one, or two, or three of his guests had given him the cold shoulder in days gone by ; men who always had just made heavy payments when poor George wanted to borrow money ; who met him at parties with a cool nod, and looked as solemn as judges when he made a joke. But George made all equally welcome, and was pleased to have them slap his back, and hear them call him “ old fellow.” His French cook achieved wonders of art for them, and his butler produced his choicest wines to tickle their palates. Among themselves they sneered at Scarsdale’s Indian ways and part knowledge of English fashionable life. One exquisite, in lemon-coloured kids, was in an agony of indignation because, when he went to bed at five o’clock one morning after a night cards, bo had looked out of the win '~-y aud gave his word of honour that Scarsdale was up and out in the garden with a cigar between his lips, gathering, moss roses. “ And,” quoth the exquisite, wiping his brow on perfumed cambric, “that sort of thing, you know, will not do in life.” Another gentleman, with a purple nose, said that the man who flinched his bottle and would not play was a sneak; and ac George was neither gamester nor drunkard, the inference was plain. On one point, however, all were agreed, namely, {hat George was a rich man now, and ought to be patronized, which, according to their code of morals, ‘meant ‘ fleeced ” to the last pennylie possessed. They did not gay so openly, but each looked with jealous eye upon Ins neighbour, aud feared that he would get the first slice. Many there were who were constantly disappointed of remittances from town, and to these George lent money with bountiful hand. Others flattered him to obtain his interest in forwarding some pet scheme, and no less than five had asked him to return them for his pocket borough of Scarsdale. It was a very pleasant life, George thought, and a cheerlul contrast to everlasting morning drills and the monotony of Indian country garrison life. Sometimes he indeed sighed when ho called to mind some dashing ex ploit of his regiment in the field, ami would glance at his sword aud sash which hung upon his bedroom w-ull. On such occasions he would take out Isis well-worn ui iform, and, looking affectionately at it, try to imagine that the bugle had just rung out the order to boot and saddle, and the enemy was on the move. But half an hour with his friends below would drive away all traces of discontent from his good-humoured, laughing face, and he felt no more that ho was wasting his precious time.

“Pass tho decanter, Scarsdale,” cried Mr. Selby,one evening (himself the hardest drinker about town) ; “you always keep the wine from circulating. Upon uty word I think you mean it as a hint for us all to pack up and be off.” “If you wait until 1 give you such a Lint, you will all die here ; and I’ll take a vault for the lot in tho morning,” replied George, passing the wine. “Urink away, my boys, there’s more in the cellar, and plenty to bo bought when wo get through that.”

“ Oh, yes, it’s all very well to pass the wine, but not to help yourself seems to reproach us with drinking it. fill your glass, man, unless you’ve turned teetotaler.”

“Gad, I do believe he has,” cried another, “and has got a dispensation )ust to take three glasses a day during our stay. I say, Selby, let ns take him to the pump to wafer twice a day, and then give him a bran mush and a peck of oats, after the manner of horses; who would drink wine if they could get it, and knew how good it was.”

“ That’s nonsense,” said George, laughing. I’ll bet ray best hunter against sixpence that you cannot educate a horse to drink wine ; but I’v* known many a donkey do it without any education at all.”

“ Bravo, Sesvsdale i That’s well put, end we II wash it down in a bumper. Fill your glasses, gentlemen, and we’ll drink to Scarednle’s last. A more thoroughbred gentleman I never knew, but I tell him to his face that he has a serious fault, and that he should take his liquor like a man —in moderation, of course ; no gentleman drunk now-a-dayg ; but hang it, a Dottle of gooa wine after dinner is nothing « Sssrs nothing,”

I c( 1.1.1 . *• r 3 i J XIUIAiAUgy a UiCi* ixvw-HiAg, CCiICCCi the . others; bo, to pleaso liiciu, CreOrgo drank glass for glass with them during the sitting. But they took care to adjourn to the billiard-room when he was excited enough for their purpose, and hs sat down to play at rouge et-noir. Then came the craving for more wine for the wine’s sake ; the thirst grew upon what went to quench it; the fevered, blind impulse to commit absurd actions; then a confused hum of voices, a blank, and next morning a racking headache, and a dread of rising to inhale the fragrant summer air.

“ Ah, my boy,” cried Seiby, lounging into the room in his dressing-gown, “Are vou not up yet? Why. -ifs pear noon. Shall I tell your man to bring break, ast utj ? ”

“If you will he good enough. You know I was drunk last night—more fool I.”

“I know nothing of the kind. You may have got drunk after you left us, but you were sober enough when you went to bed. I grant you that I was rather touched, but then you hit two or three of us so heavily that we might be excused for revenging ourselves on your cellar.” “ Did I win ? ”

“ What a question. How dull you are this morning. I’ll give two thousand for your pocket book and contents, cash down. What do you say ? are you on ? George took his pocket-book from his coat and examined it. It contained two or three I. O. U.’s and notes and gold for (litoen hundred pounds. “ I had no idea of this, Selby; this money must be returned. Take your I. O. H.”

“ When I play, sir,” exclaimed Selby, angrily, “ I play to win or lose, as fortune smiles or frowns, but I don’t play to be insulted in this manner.”

“Nay, Selby, I didn’t mean to offenj you, but it doesn’t seem right that 1 should invite people here in order to win money of them.”

“ Nonsense, man, don’t be stupid. If you want to get rid of it, you will, of course, give us our revenge ; and when you have lost it all you can leave the table.”

“ Then you shall have your revenge tonight, if that be all, and I hope I shall lose.”

“I hope so too. But here comes breakfast, aud brandy and sodawater. Our fathers used to driuk small beer after a bout, but for their sons was reserved the luxury of sodawater. Now. let mo mix it.”

Pouring four wine glasses full of strong brandy into a largo tumbler, he poured the iced sodawater on it, and presented the hissing compound to George, who drained it to the last drop. “ That’s delicious. It cools mo and yet warms me, if you can understand such a paradox.

“ Oh, can’t I,” returned Selby, laughing “Your milk and water teetotaler would have gone to tho pump, and taken a disgusting draught of water, but it requires a higher order of civilisation to appreciate such tipple as that. I’ll put a wine glassful in your coffee, and then leave you to it, and if you don’t feel a different man after breakfast, I’ll take my I. O. U. back.” Night came with the usual drink and play, and George again rose a winner to n large amount. Then luck changed, and he lost largely, drank to drown remorse, and played to retrieve his losses. He had passed the rubicon; he had yielded to temptation, and was now on tho downward path to ruin. What need cf entering into particulars f It was tho old, old story over again, fitful efforts to stem the current which was bearing him away. Partial reformation, succeeded by more hideous successes ; blighted love, ruined hopes, lost friends, ruined reputation. He had sown the wind and reaped tho whirlwind. Tho last acre was sold, the last guinea spent, and then the great capital received another lost sou), to sinklower, and lower, until the once highminded soldier and gentleman came to be the “Gentleman George” of Londonroad, the hero of half a hundred policecourt scenes, who now lay in a workhouse, dying of a wound caused by a broken ginbottle.