Paul Clifford — Complete
had nothing of the angel about her, was sufficiently fond of gayety,
dancing, music, and admiration to feel her heart beat high at the
expectation of the event.
At last the day itself came. Brandon dined alone with Mauleverer, having
made the arrangement that he, with the earl, was to join his brother
and niece at the ball. Mauleverer, who hated state, except on great
occasions, when no man displayed it with a better grace, never suffered
his servants to wait at dinner when he was alone or with one of his
peculiar friends. The attendants remained without, and were summoned at
will by a bell laid beside the host.
The conversation was unrestrained.
“I am perfectly certain, Brandon,” said Mauleverer, “that if you were
to live tolerably well, you would soon get the better of your nervous
complaints. It is all poverty of blood, believe me. Some more of the
fins, eh?--No! Oh, hang your abstemiousness; it is d----d unfriendly to
eat so little! Talking of fins and friends, Heaven defend me from ever
again forming an intimacy with a pedantic epicure, especially if he
puns!”
“Why, what has a pedant to do with fins?”
“I will tell you,--ah, this madeira--I suggested to Lord Dareville, who
affects the gourmand, what a capital thing a dish all fins (turbot's
fins) might be made. 'Capital!' said he, in a rapture; 'dine on it with
me to-morrow.' 'Volontiers!' said I. The next day, after indulging in
a pleasing revery all the morning as to the manner in which Dareville's
cook, who is not without genius, would accomplish the grand idea, I
betook myself punctually to my engagement. Would you believe it? When
the cover was removed, the sacrilegious dog of an Amphitryon had put
into the dish Cicero's 'De Finibus.' 'There is a work all fins!' said
he. “Atrocious jest!” exclaimed Brandon, solemnly.
“Was it not? Whenever the gastronomists set up a religious inquisition,
I trust they will roast every impious rascal who treats the divine
mystery with levity. Pun upon cooking, indeed! A propos of Dareville, he
is to come into the administration.”
“You astonish me!” said Brandon. “I never heard that; I don't know him.
He has very little power; has he any talent?”
“Yes, a very great one,--acquired, though.”
“What is it?”
“A pretty wife!”
“My lord!” exclaimed Brandon, abruptly, and half rising from his seat.
Mauleverer looked up hastily, and on seeing the expression of his
companion's face coloured deeply; there was a silence for some moments.
“Tell me,” said Brandon, indifferently, helping himself to vegetables,
for he seldom touched meat; and a more amusing contrast can scarcely be
conceived than that between the earnest epicurism of Mauleverer and the
careless contempt of the sublime art manifested by his guest,--“tell me,
you who necessarily know everything, whether the government really
is settled,--whether you are to have the garter, and I (mark the
difference!) the judgeship.”
“Why so, I imagine, it will be arranged; namely, if you will consent to
hang up the rogues instead of living by the fools!”
“One may unite both!” returned Brandon. “But I believe, in general, it
is vice versa; for we live by the rogues, and it is only the fools we
are able to hang up. You ask me if I will take the judgeship. I would
not--no, I would rather cut my hand off,” and the lawyer spoke with
great bitterness, “forsake my present career, despite all the obstacles
that now encumber it, did I think that this miserable body would suffer
me for two years longer to pursue it.”
“You shock me!” said Mauleverer, a little affected, but nevertheless
applying the cayenne to his cucumber with his usual unerring nicety of
tact,--“you shock me; but you are considerably better than you were.”
“It is not,” continued Brandon, who was rather speaking to himself than
to his friend,--“it is not that I am unable to conquer the pain and to
master the recreant nerves; but I feel myself growing weaker and weaker
beneath the continual exertion of my remaining powers, and I shall die
before I have gained half my objects, if I do not leave the labours
which are literally tearing me to pieces.”
“But,” said Lord Mauleverer, who was the idlest of men, “the judgeship
is not an easy sinecure.”
“No; but there is less demand on the mind in that station than in
my present one;” and Brandon paused before he continued. “Candidly,
Mauleverer, you do not think they will deceive me,--you do not think
they mean to leave me to this political death without writing 'Resurgam'
over the hatchment?”
“They dare not!” said Mauleverer, quaffing his fourth glass of madeira.
“Well, I have decided on my change of life,” said the lawyer, with a
slight sigh.
“So have I on my change of opinion,” chimed in the earl. “I will tell
you what opinions seem to me like.”
“What?” said Brandon, abstractedly.
“Trees!” answered Mauleverer, quaintly. “If they can be made serviceable
by standing, don't part with a stick; but when they are of that growth
that sells well, or whenever they shut out a fine prospect, cut them
down, and pack them off by all manner of means!--And now for the second
course.”
“I wonder,” said the earl, when our political worthies were again alone,
“whether there ever existed a minister who cared three straws for the
people; many care for their party, but as for the country--”
“It is all fiddlestick!” added the lawyer, with more significance than
grace.
“Right; it is all fiddlestick, as you tersely express it. King,
Constitution, and Church, forever! which, being interpreted, means,
first, King or Crown influence, judgeships, and garters; secondly,
Constitution, or fees to the lawyer, places to the statesman, laws for
the rich, and Game Laws for the poor; thirdly, Church, or livings for
our younger sons, and starvings for their curates!”
“Ha, ha!” said Brandon, laughing sardonically; “we know human nature!”
“And how it may be gulled!” quoth the courtier. “Here's a health to
your niece; and may it not be long before you hail her as your friend's
bride!”
“Bride, et cetera,” said Brandon, with a sneer meant only for his own
satisfaction. “But mark me, my dear lord, do not be too sure of her.
She is a singular girl, and of more independence than the generality of
women. She will not think of your rank and station in estimating you;
she will think only of their owner; and pardon me if I suggest to you,
who know the sex so well, one plan that it may not be unadvisable
for you to pursue. Don't let her fancy you entirely hers; rouse her
jealousy, pique her pride, let her think you unconquerable, and unless
she is unlike all women, she will want to conquer you.”
The earl smiled. “I must take my chance!” said he, with a confident
tone.
“The hoary coxcomb!” muttered Brandon, between his teeth; “now will his
folly spoil all.”
“And that reminds me,” continued Mauleverer, “that time wanes, and
dinner is not over; let us not hurry, but let us be silent, to enjoy the
more. These truffles in champagne,--do taste them; they would raise the
dead.”
The lawyer smiled, and accepted the kindness, though he left the
delicacy untouched; and Mauleverer, whose soul was in his plate, saw not
the heartless rejection.
Meanwhile the youthful beauty had already entered the theatre of
pleasure, and was now seated with the squire at the upper end of the
half-filled ball-room.
A gay lady of the fashion at that time, and of that half and half rank
to which belonged the aristocracy of Bath,--one of those curious persons
we meet with in the admirable novels of Miss Burney, as appertaining
to the order of fine ladies,--made the trio with our heiress and her
father, and pointed out to them by name the various characters that
entered the apartments. She was still in the full tide of scandal, when
an unusual sensation was visible in the environs of the door; three
strangers of marked mien, gay dress, and an air which, though differing
in each, was in all alike remarkable for a sort of “dashing” assurance,
made their entree. One was of uncommon height, and possessed of
an exceedingly fine head of hair; another was of a more quiet
and unpretending aspect, but nevertheless he wore upon his face a
supercilious yet not ill-humoured expression; the third was many years
younger than his companions, strikingly handsome in face and figure,
altogether of a better taste in dress, and possessing a manner that,
though it had equal ease, was not equally noticeable for impudence and
swagger.
“Who can those be?” said Lucy's female friend, in a wondering tone. “I
never saw them before,--they must be great people,--they have all the
airs of persons of quality! Dear, how odd that I should not know them!”
While the good lady, who, like all good ladies of that stamp, thought
people of quality had airs, was thus lamenting her ignorance of
the new-comers, a general whisper of a similar import was already
circulating round the room, “Who are they?” and the universal answer
was, “Can't tell,--never saw them before!”
Our strangers seemed by no means displeased with the evident and
immediate impression they had made. They stood in the most conspicuous
part of the room, enjoying among themselves a low conversation,
frequently broken by fits of laughter,--tokens, we need not add, of
their supereminently good breeding. The handsome figure of the youngest
stranger, and the simple and seemingly unconscious grace of his
attitudes were not, however, unworthy of the admiration he excited; and
even his laughter, rude as it really was, displayed so dazzling a set
of teeth, and was accompanied by such brilliant eyes, that before he
had been ten minutes in the room there was scarcely a young lady under
thirty-nine not disposed to fall in love with him.
Apparently heedless of the various remarks which reached their ears, our
strangers, after they had from their station sufficiently surveyed the
beauties of the ball, strolled arm-in-arm through the rooms. Having
sauntered through the ball and card rooms, they passed the door that
led to the entrance passage, and gazed, with other loiterers, upon the
new-comers ascending the stairs. Here the two younger strangers renewed
their whispered conversation, while the eldest, who was also the tallest
one, carelessly leaning against the wall, employed himself for a few
moments in thrusting his fingers through his hair. In finishing this
occupation, the peculiar state of his rules forced itself upon the
observation of our gentleman, who, after gazing for some moments on an
envious rent in the right ruffle, muttered some indistinct words, like
“the cock of that confounded pistol,” and then tucked up the mutilated
ornament with a peculiarly nimble motion of the fingers of his left
hand; the next moment, diverted by a new care, the stranger applied his
digital members to the arranging and caressing of a remarkably splendid
brooch, set in the bosom of a shirt the rude texture of which formed
a singular contrast with the magnificence of the embellishment and the
fineness of the one ruffle suffered by our modern Hyperion to make
its appearance beneath his cinnamon-coloured coatsleeve. These little
personal arrangements completed, and a dazzling snuff-box released from
the confinement of a side-pocket, tapped thrice, and lightened of two
pinches of its titillating luxury, the stranger now, with the guardian
eye of friendship, directed a searching glance to the dress of his
friends. There all appeared meet for his strictest scrutiny, save,
indeed, that the supercilious-looking stranger having just drawn forth
his gloves, the lining of his coat-pocket which was rather soiled
into the bargain--had not returned to its internal station; the tall
stranger, seeing this little inelegance, kindly thrust three fingers