, about - about some journey to Brighton which the cousins took.«
Here Mr. Crackthorpe grinned most facetiously. »Farintosh swore he'd knock
Henchman down; and vows he will be the death of - will murder our friend Clive
when he comes to town. As for Henchman, he was in a desperate way. He lives on
the Marquis, you know, and Farintosh's anger or his marriage will be the loss of
free quarters and ever so many good dinners a year to him.« I did not deem it
necessary to impart Crackthorpe's story to Clive, or explain to him the reason
why Lord Farintosh scowled most fiercely upon the young painter, and passed him
without any other sign of recognition one day as Clive and I were walking
together in Pall Mall. If my lord wanted a quarrel, young Clive was not a man to
balk him, and would have been a very fierce customer to deal with in his actual
state of mind.
    A pauper child in London at seven years old knows how to go to market, to
fetch the beer, to pawn father's coat, to choose the largest fried fish or the
nicest ham-bone, to nurse Mary Jane of three - to conduct a hundred operations
of trade or housekeeping, which a little Belgravian does not perhaps acquire in
all the days of her life. Poverty and necessity force this precociousness on the
poor little brat. There are children who are accomplished shop-lifters and liars
almost as soon as they can toddle and speak. I dare say little Princes know the
laws of etiquette as regards themselves, and the respect due to their rank, at a
very early period of their royal existence. Every one of us according to his
degree can point to the Princekins of private life who are flattered and
worshipped, and whose little shoes grown men kiss as soon almost as they walk
upon ground.
    It is a wonder what human nature will support; and that, considering the
amount of flattery some people are crammed with from their cradles, they do not
grow worse and more selfish than they are. Our poor little pauper just mentioned
is dosed with Daffy's Elixir, and somehow survives the drug. Princekin or
Lordkin from his earliest days has nurses, dependants, governesses, little
friends, school-fellows, school-masters, fellow-collegians, college tutors,
stewards and valets, led-captains of his suite, and women innumerable,
flattering him and doing him honour. The tradesman's manner, which to you and me
is decently respectful, becomes straightway frantically servile before
Princekin.
