Page:Reminisences of Captain Gronow.djvu/81

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Beau Brummell.
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when his Royal Highness had abandoned that beautiful woman for another favourite, A coldness then ensued between the Prince and his protégé; and finally, the mirror of fashion was excluded from the royal presence.

A curious accident brought Brummell again to the dinner-table of his royal patron: he was asked one night at White's to take a hand at whist, when he won from George Harley Drummond 20,000l. This circumstance having been related by the Duke of York to the Prince of Wales, the beau was again invited to Carlton House. At the commencement of the dinner, matters went off smoothly; but Brummell, in his joy at finding himself with his old friend, became excited, and drank too much wine. His Royal Highness—who wanted to pay off Brummell for an insult he had received at Lady Cholmondeley's ball, when the beau, turning towards the Prince, said to Lady Worcester, "Who is you fat friend?"—had invited him to dinner merely out of a desire for revenge. The Prince therefore pretended to be affronted with Brummell's hilarity, and said to his brother, the Duke of York, who was present, "I think we had better order Mr. Brummell's carriage before he gets drunk." Whereupon he

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