Page 580 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

Crofton, the gambler and rake, in his proper person, and it
was not expedient that his acquaintance should be made in
the person of Richard Devine, lest by some unlucky chance
he should recognize the cheat. Thus poor Lionel Croft-
on was compelled to lie still in his grave, and Mr. Richard
Devine, trusting to a big beard and more burly figure to
keep his secret, was compelled to begin his friendship with
Mr. Lionel’s whilom friends all over again. In Paris and
London there were plenty of people ready to become hail-
fellow-well-met with any gentleman possessing money. Mr.
Richard Devine’s history was whispered in many a boudoir
and club-room. The history, however, was not always told
in the same way. It was generally known that Lady Devine
had a son, who, being supposed to be dead, had suddenly
returned, to the confusion of his family. But the manner of
his return was told in many ways.
In the first place, Mr. Francis Wade, well-known though
he was, did not move in that brilliant circle which had late-
ly received his nephew. There are in England many men of
fortune, as large as that left by the old ship-builder, who are
positively unknown in that little world which is supposed
to contain all the men worth knowing. Francis Wade was a
man of mark in his own coterie. Among artists, bric-a-brac
sellers, antiquarians, and men of letters he was known as a
patron and man of taste. His bankers and his lawyers knew
him to be of independent fortune, but as he neither mixed
in politics, ‘went into society’, betted, or speculated in
merchandise, there were several large sections of the com-
munity who had never heard his name. Many respectable