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Mr Jackson Hyane was one of those oldish-looking young men to whom the

description of "man about town" most naturally applied He was always

well-dressed and correctly dressed You saw hihts He

was to be seen in the paddock at Ascot--it was a shock to discover that

he had not the Royal Enclosure badge on the lapel of his coat--and he

was to be met with at most of the social functions, attendance at which

did not necessarily imply an intimate acquaintance with the leaders of

Society, yet left the impression that the attendant was, at any rate,

in the swiht very well be one of the principal swimmers

He lived off Albemarle Street in a tiny flat, and did no work of any

kind whatever His friends, especially his new friends, thought he

"had a little money," and knew, since he told them, that he had

expectations He did not tell theely

bound up in their credulity and faith in his integrity Some of them

discovered that later, but thewiser, for Mr Hyane played a wonderful game of

piquet, and seemed to be no more than abnormally lucky

His mother had been a Miss Whitland, his father was the notorious

Colonel Hyane, who boasted that his library was papered with High Court

writs, and who had had the distinction of being escorted from Monte

Carlo by the police of the Principality

Mr Jackson Hyane was a student of men and affairs Very little