ABSTRACT
The whist party turned out very different from the expectations formed respecting it, for the disputant did not think fit to make his appearance; a circumstance which seemed to give Dawkins great annoyance, and incited him to commence anew his demonstrations to Percy, that he had played honourably on the previous evening, a thing about which the youth had never taken any interest. To one more experienced in reading mankind than Percy, the anxiety of his friend on this point would have proved a strong ground of suspicion; for the guilty are always feverishly desirous to assert their innocence, even when it is not questioned. The disputant, if he were not one of the set, had probably made some discoveries respecting his antagonist, which had prevented him from joining the party; or, what was not unlikely, it may have been altogether a scheme on the part of Dawkins to get Percy himself to take the vacant hand, and thus break the ice towards the prosecution of deeper designs.
