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 my Lord," said Vivian, with a very serious voice, "if you could possibly contrive to interfere, it would be desirable. That lecturing knave never knows when to stop, and he's actually insulting men before whom, after all, he ought not dare to open his lips. I see that your Lordship is naturally not very much inclined to quit your present occupation, in order to act Moderator to a set of political brawlers; but come, you shall not be quite sacrificed to the county,—I will give up the waltz in which I was engaged, and keep your seat until your return."

The Marquess, who was always "keeping up county influence," was very shocked at the obstreperous conduct of Liberal Snake. Indeed he had viewed the arrival of this worthy with no smiling countenance, but what could he say—as he came in the suite of Lord Pert, who was writing, with the lecturer's assistance, a pretty little pamphlet on the Currency?