Cashel Byron's Profession

"What is his true position? I mean before he becomes a

prize-fighter."

"Well, he may be a handicraftsman of some kind: a journeyman

butcher, skinner, tailor, or baker. Possibly a soldier, sailor,

policeman, gentleman's servant, or what not? But he is generally a

common laborer. The waterside is prolific of such heroes."

"Do they never come from a higher rank?"

"Never even from the better classes in their own. Broken-down

gentlemen are not likely to succeed at work that needs the strength

and endurance of a bull and the cruelty of a butcher."

"And the end of a prize-fighter. What is that like?"

"He soon has to give up his trade. For, if he be repeatedly beaten,

no one will either bet on him or subscribe to provide him with a

stake. If he is invariably successful, those, if any, who dare fight

him find themselves in a like predicament. In either case his

occupation is gone. If he has saved money he opens a sporting

public-house, where he sells spirits of the worst description to his

old rivals and their associates, and eventually drinks himself to

death or bankruptcy. If, however, he has been improvident or

unfortunate, he begs from his former patrons and gives lessons.

Finally, when the patrons are tired of him and the pupils fail, he

relapses into the laboring class with a ruined constitution, a

disfigured face, a brutalized nature, and a tarnished reputation."

Lydia remained silent so long after this that Lucian's expression of

magisterial severity first deepened, then wavered, and finally gave

way to a sense of injury; for she seemed to have forgotten him. He

was about to protest against this treatment, when she looked at him

again, and said, "Why did Lord Worthington introduce a man of this class to me?"

"Because you asked him to do so. Probably he thought that if you

chose to make such a request without previous inquiry, you should

not blame him if you found yourself saddled with an undesirable

acquaintance. Recollect that you asked for the introduction on the

platform at Wiltstoken, in the presence of the man himself. Such a

ruffian would be capable of making a disturbance for much less

offence than an explanation and refusal would have given him."

"Lucian," said Lydia, in a tone of gentle admonition, "I asked to be

introduced to my tenant, for whose respectability you had vouched by

letting the Warren Lodge to him." Lucian reddened. "How does Lord

Worthington explain Mr. Byron's appearance at Mrs. Hoskyn's?"