perienced from him in an affair which deeply concerned me. I had
formed an attachment for a young female in the neighbourhood, who, though
poor, was of highly respectable birth, her father having been a curate of
the Established Church."

This better one is from "Lavengro":

"And then Francis Ardry proceeded to make me his confidant. It appeared
that he had had the good fortune to make the acquaintance of the most
delightful young Frenchwoman imaginable, Annette La Noire by name, who
had just arrived from her native country with the intention of obtaining
the situation of governess in some English family; a position which, on
account of her many accomplishments, she was eminently qualified to fill.
Francis Ardry had, however, persuaded her to relinquish her intention for
the present, on the ground that, until she had become acclimated in
England, her health would probably suffer from the confinement
inseparable from the occupation in which she was desirous of engaging; he
had, moreover--for it appeared that she was the most frank and confiding
creature in the world--succeeded in persuading her to permit him to hire
for her a very handsome first floor in his own neighbourhood, and to
accept a few inconsiderable presents in money and jewellery."

But coarse and rigid as this is the same vocabulary, the same ample,
oratorical tone, will help Borrow to genial, substantial effects such as
the dinner with the landlord and the commercial traveller: "The dinner
was good, though plain, consisting of boiled mackerel--rather a rarity in
those parts at that time--with fennel sauce, a prime baron of roast beef
after the mackerel, then a tart and noble Cheshire cheese; we had prime
sherry at dinner, and whilst eating the cheese prime porter, that of
Barclay, the only good porter in the world. After the cloth was removed
we had a bottle of very good port; and whilst partaking of the port I had
an argument with the commercial traveller on the subject of the
corn-laws."

What is more, this is the vocabulary and tone of the whole book, and how
far the total effect is from coarseness and rigidity I cannot show now if
I have not done so already. Borrow's gusto triumphs over this style in
descriptions of men riding, fighting, talking or drinking. His sense of
mystery triumphs over it continually as the prevailing atmosphere must
prove. The gusto and the mystery are all the more impressive because the
means are entirely concealed, e