This is a novel book. A man with what were your prospects can't afford escapades. It's all very well for a Frenchman; it don't pay in England. So then I maintained that half the political reputations of the present day were based on escapades. 'Whom do you mean?'--he said--'Randolph Churchill?--But Randolph's escapades were always just what the man in the street understood. As for your escapade, the man in the street can't make head or tail of it.
