The young man who now lounged in with a smiling face and a nod of recognition to Cale, was not unknown to Tom.  He had seen him several times, and had taken a liking for him, which the other reciprocated.  Harry Gay was the son of a leading merchant citizen, a man of some importance and mark, who was able to give his son every advantage that money could purchase, and the means to enter almost any circle short of that of the court itself.

But he had also transmitted to his son a certain hard-headed shrewdness, which stood him in good stead in the gay life he was now leading.  Harry had the sense not to try to push himself amongst the high-born dames and gallants, where he would be regarded as an interloper, and only admitted to be fleeced of his gold; but contented himself with a more modest sphere, where he was a man of some little mark, and could lead as well as follow, if he had the mind.

Entering the back shop, Harry cast an approving glance at Tom, and nodded his head towards Cale, at the same time taking a pinch of snuff from his box, and handing it to the perruquier.

“Does you credit, Curley, does you great credit.  A chaste and simple costume, but elegant withal—­uncommon elegant, i’ faith.  Shouldn’t mind a suit of the same myself, if I had our young friend’s inches.

“Well, friend Tom, and how do you feel?  Learned to take snuff yet?  No!  Ah, well, ’twill come by degrees.

“Put some more scent upon his person, Curley; he must smell like a perfumer’s shop; and so—­give him his gold-tasselled cane, and the gloves with the golden fringe.  A muff?  No!  Well, perchance those great fists would look something strange in one, and the day is fine and mild.

“So, if you are ready, friend Tom, we will sally forth.  To the coffee house first, and afterwards, an it please you, to the play.

“Farewell, Curley; I will bring you back your nursling safe and sound.  He shall not be rooked or robbed today.  But how long I shall be able to hold the cub in leading strings remains yet to be proved!”

Tom was in far too good spirits to take umbrage at this name.  He felt anything but a cub as he walked down the street beside his scented and curled and daintily-arrayed companion, unconsciously striving to copy his jaunty step, and the little airs and graces of his manner.

“We will to the Folly,” said Harry, as they stepped out into Holborn and turned their faces westward.  “You have not yet seen the river, and the Folly is a floating structure moored in the water on the farther shore opposite to Somerset House, of which you may have heard.  It is not the most fashionable resort; but, for my part, I like it well.  There is always good company to be had there, and we are not interrupted every moment by the incursions of drunken roisterers, who spend their day in reeling from tavern to tavern, or coffee house to coffee house, in search of some new story to tell, or some fresh encounter to provoke.”