Pelham, Volume 1.

false ambi

lude, and fo

ens

, haunted wit

Hall's

nel Garrett to pay him a visit at his country seat. Accordingly, one raw winter's day, full of the hopes of the reviving in

riends in town were of that set whose members are above ton, whenever they do not grasp at its possession, but who, whenever they do, lose at once their aim and their equilibrium, and fall immeasurably below it. I mean that set which I call "the respectable," consisting of old peers of an old school; country gentlemen, who still disdain not to love their wine and to hate the French; generals who h

green coat and lank hair, but pinched in, and curled out-abounding in horses and whiskers-da

.'s and unless he bowed to Lady S. Disdaining all importance derived from himself, it became absolutely necessary to his happiness, that all his importance should be derived solely from his acquaintance with others. He cared not a straw that he was a man of fortune, of family, of consequence; he must be a man of ton; or he w

e saw her admitted into good society-he imagined she commanded it; she was a hanger on-he believed she was a leader. Lady Harriett was crafty and twenty-

, and the only thing which brought them pleasure was the pain of attaining it. Did I not say truly that I would describe individuals of a common species? Is there one who reads this, who does not recognize that overflowing class of the English population, whose members would conceive it an insult to be thought of sufficient rank to be respectable for what

the stairs after having performed that ceremony, I heard my own name pronounced by a

y reply, couched in a slow, pompous accent, which I imm

hing of him?" resu

dy Harriett, indigna

he is son to Lad

lessly; "but can he write p

ut permit me, through you, to assure Lady

she took my arm, and began discussing persons and things, poetry and china, French plays and music, till I found myself bes

put me exceedingly in mind of my grandmother's arm-chair; beside him was a quick, sharp little woman, all sparkle and bustle, glancing a small, grey, prying eye round the table, with a most restless activity: this, as Lady Nelthorpe afterwards informed me, was

to say a civil thing. He was too much disliked not to be recherche; whatever is once notorious, even for being disagreeable, is sure to be courted in England. Opposite to him sat the really clever, and affectedly pedantic Lord Vincent, one of those persons who have been "promisin

, was exceedingly affected, wrote poetry in albums, ridiculed her husband, who w

were good shots and bad matches; elderly ladies, who lived in Baker- stree

among all people who paid due deference to ton, was always sure to be so every where. I have never seen but one person more beautiful. Her eyes were of the deepest blue; her c

been dead about two years, had not survived their marriage many months; that period was, however, sufficiently long to allow him to app

e utterly different from those of every one else, you could not, in the least minutiae, discover in what the difference consisted: this is, in my opinion, the real tes

t to Mr. Wormwood, "have

as the

rafford, who never lost an opp

e, after having brought you fifty miles from town, of small house-no beds-all engaged-i

s a head benea

ed they did: poor old Lord Belton, with his rheumatism; and that immense General Grant, with his asthma

same night I did; and when I saw his unwieldy person waddling out of the door the next morning, I said to Temple, 'Well,

Do you remember Jekyl? Poor fellow, what a really good punster he was-not agreeable tho

"Salmi de perdreaux aux truffes,

ormwood, "have you

l energy, "and they are the best

cularly fond of them, but I dare not touch one-truffles are so

son was, as I have said, short and fat, and made without any a

the most deadly fear and aversion at the fatal dish he had been so attentive to before;

all other dinners; the ladies retired, and the men drank, and talked indecorums. Mr. Davison left the room first, in order to look out the word "truffle," in the Encyclopaedi