than his rent-roll and his parchments.
As we are more desirous of recording the impression he himself created,
than of tracing how others appeared to him, we shall make a noiseless
turn of the salons, and, spy-fashion, listen behind the chairs.
"So you don't think him even good-looking, Lady Kilgoff?" said Mr.
Linton, as he stood half behind her seat.
"Certainly not more than good-looking, and not so much as
nice-looking,--very awkward, and ill at ease he seems."
"That will wear off when he has the good taste to give up talking to
young ladies, and devote himself to the married ones."
"Enchanting,--positively enchanting, my dear," exclaimed Mrs. Leicester
White to a young friend beside her. "That description of the forest,
over which the lianas formed an actual roof, the golden fruit hanging
a hundred feet above the head, was the most gorgeous picture I ever
beheld."
"I wish you could persuade him," lisped a young lady with large blue
eyes, and a profusion of yellow hair in ringlets, "to write that little
story of the Zambo for Lady Blumter's Annual."
"I say, Charlie," whispered the baronet to the aide-decamp, "but he's
wide-awake, that Master Cashel; he's a very shrewd fellow, you'll see."
"Do you mean to couch his eyes, Tom?" said Lord Charles, with his usual
slow, lazy intonation; "what does he say about the races,--will he
come?"
"Oh, he can't promise, old Kennyfeck has a hold upon him just now about
law business."
"You will impress upon him, my dear Mr. Kennyfeck," said Mr. Meek, who
held the lappet of the other's coat, "that there are positively--so to
say--but two parties in the country,--the Gentleman and the Jacobin.
Whig and Tory, orange and green, have had their day; and the question
is now between those who have something to lose, and those who have
everything to gain."
"I really could wish that you, who are so far better qualified than I am
to explain--"
"So I will; I intend, my dear sir. Now, when can you dine with me? You
must come this week; next I shall be obliged to be in London. Shall we
say Wednesday? Wednesday be it Above all, take care that he doesn't even
meet any of that dangerous faction,--those Morgans. They are the very
people to try a game of ascendancy over a young man of great prospects
and large fortune. O'Growl wants a few men of standing to give an air
of substance and respectability to the movement. Lord Witherton will
be most kind to your young friend, but yo
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