Project Gutenberg's Davenport Dunn, Volume 1 (of 2), by Charles James Lever

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Title: Davenport Dunn, Volume 1 (of 2)
A Man Of Our Day

Author: Charles James Lever

Illustrator: Phiz.

Release Date: May 11, 2010 [EBook #32341]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAVENPORT DUNN, VOLUME 1 (OF 2) ***

Produced by David Widger

DAVENPORT DUNN

A MAN OF OUR DAY

By Charles Lever,

With Illustrations By "Phiz."

Volume One of Two

London: Chapman And Hall

1862.

DAVENPORT DUNN, A MAN OF THE DAY.

CHAPTER I. HYDROPATHIC ACQUAINTANCES.

We are at Como, on the lake--that spot so beloved of opera dancers--the
day-dream of prima donnas--the Elysium of retired barytones! And with
what reason should this be the Paradise of all who have lived and
sighed, and warbled and pirouetted, within the charmed circle of the
footlights? The crystal waters mirroring every cliff and crag with
intense distinctness; the vegetation variegated to the very verge of
extravagance; orange-trees overloaded with fruit; arbutus only too
much bespangled with red berries; villas, more coquettish than ever
scene-painter conceived, with vistas of rooms within, all redolent of
luxury; terraces, and statues, and vases, and fountains, and marble
balconies, steeped in a thousand balmy odours, make up a picture
which well may fascinate those whose ideal of beauty is formed of such
gorgeous groupings. There is something of unreality in the brilliant
colouring and variety of the scene suggesting the notion, that at any
moment the tenor may emerge, velvet mantle and all, from the copse
before you; or a prima donna, in all the dishevelment of her back hair,
rush madly to your feet. There is not a portal from which an angry
father may not issue; not a shady walk that might not be trod by an
incensed basso!

The rustic bridges seem made for the tiny feet of short-petticoated
damsels, daintily tripping, with white-napkin covered baskets, to soft
music; and every bench appears but waiting for that wearied old peasant,
in blue stockings, a staff, and a leather belt, that has vented his
tiresomeness in the same s