I have once before in these “Confessions” claimed to myself the privilege, not inconsistent with a full disclosure of the memorabilia of my life, to pass slightly over those passages, the burden of which was unhappy, and whose memory is painful.  I must now, therefore, claim the “benefit of this act,” and beg of the reader to let me pass from this sad portion of my history, and for the full expression of my mingled rage, contempt, disappointment, and sorrow, let me beg of him to receive instead, what a learned pope once gave as his apology for not reading a rather polysyllabic word in a Latin letter—­“As for this,” said he, looking at the phrase in question, “soit qui’l dit,” so say I. And now —­en route.

The confessions of Harry Lorrequer, Volume 2

[By Charles James Lever (1806-1872)]

Dublin

MDCCCXXXIX.

Volume 2. (Chapters XI. to XVII.)

Contents: 

Chapter XI
Cheltenham—­Matrimonial Adventure—­Showing how to make love for a friend

Chapter XII
Dublin—­Tom O’Flaherty—­A Reminiscence of the Peninsula

Chapter XIII
Dublin—­The Boarding-house—­Select Society

Chapter XIV
The Chase

Chapter XV
Mems Of the North Cork

Chapter XVI
Theatricals

Chapter XVI* (This chapter # is repeated in the print copy.)
The Wager

Chapter XVII
The Elopement

CHAPTER XI.

CHELTENHAM—­MATRIMONIAL ADVENTURE—­SHOWING HOW TO MAKE LOVE FOR A FRIEND.

It was a cold raw evening in February as I sat in the coffee-room of the Old Plough in Cheltenham, “Lucullus c.  Lucullo”—­no companion save my half-finished decanter of port.  I had drawn my chair to the corner of the ample fire-place, and in a half dreamy state was reviewing the incidents of my early life, and like most men who, however young, have still to lament talents misapplied, opportunities neglected, profitless labour, and disastrous idleness.  The dreary aspect of the large and ill-lighted room—­the close-curtained boxes—­the unsocial look of every thing and body about suited the habit of my soul, and I was on the verge of becoming excessively sentimental—­the unbroken silence, where several people were present, had also its effect upon me, and I felt oppressed and dejected.  So sat I for an hour; the clock over the mantel ticked sharply on—­the old man in the brown surtout had turned in his chair, and now snored louder—­the gentleman who read the Times had got the Chronicle, and I thought I saw him nodding over the advertisements.  The father who, with a raw son of about nineteen, had dined at six, sat still and motionless opposite his offspring, and only breaking the silence around by