I was now in an awkward position. To have denounced our
hosts because I interpreted a lady's glances in a manner that made her
worse than a common thief might have produced unknown trouble. But I
kept my eye on the beautiful blonde, nevertheless, and became more
and more confirmed in my suspicions without any better opportunity of
declaring them.
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.
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