Penny Blood Serial Fiction — page 172: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ee THE PRINCE OF WALES 155 dinner than this gentleman of such numerous qualifications? Who could drink his three bottles of wine and make more sure of going home sober than Tim Meagles? His taste was as excellent in the choice of wines as his Judgment was unquestionable with regard to horse-flesh. He could drive a four-in-hand or a tandem with equal proficiency. At steeplechases he performed such wonderful feats that it appeared as if himself and his horse were possessed of a hundred lives apiece; and in swimming, leaping, running, boxing, fencing, wrestling, and all kinds of gymnastics, as well as manly sports, Tim Meagles was unapproachable by any of his friends or acquaintances. He was, moreover, reckoned a crack shot with either gun or pistol; and in respect to the “‘ laws of honour ”’ he was a peripatetic code. But these qualifications, numerous though they be, do not make up half the sum of those possessed by Mr. Timothy Meagles. He was a most convenient and useful personage to the Prince of Wales, who in many instances would not have known what to do without him. Did his Royal High- ness get into a scrape with the friends of some lady whom he had seduced, Tim Meagles was employed to hush the matter up. Did the illustrious spendthrift require money, Tim Meagles was indefatigable in his search after some capitalist to advance a loan. And on more occasions than one had this same universal and ubiquitous agent conveyed the prince’s plate or Mrs. Fitzherbert’s jewelry to a certain celebrated pawnbroker in the Strand. In fact, Tim Meagles’s services were as varied and numerous as his qualifications or his resources: He was never at a loss for the means of carrying out anything which he undertook. His ingenuity in concocting plans was only equalled by his perseverance in pursuing an object until its final attainment. Nothing could daunt his courage or damp his spirits, and the greater the obstacles he had to encounter, the more energetic became his mode of action. It was all the same to him whether he had to console a forlorn and deserted fair one, or to thrash a bailiff, and his tact in hushing up a love-affair was as admirable as his skill in appeasing a clamorous creditor. The prince not only retained him as an able instrument, but liked him as a good fellow and a pleasant companion; } and it was sufficient that he thus patronized Tim Meagles, Gomiilchboo <=) (E(0)