The Adventures of Harry Richmond - Volume 4

ther, the first of a series of three, and said that the squire had seen it and shrugged. She thought there was no positive cause for alarm, even though my father sh

his merits at the squire's table: our ingenuity was ludicrously taxed to mystify him on the subject of t

Balls?' aske

rejoined

alls, d' ye ca

alls given by a dist

nother name for trade

end tradesmen

e o' that

'what does the squire mean by telling an officer of the Roya

en to me, squire. A gentleman, I say, is one you'd say, if he wasn't born a duke, he ought to have been, and more shame to the title! He turns the key of a lady's heart with a twinkle of his eye. He 's n

s of the abstract. Julia might have done it more elegantly; but her husband was rapturous over her skill in portr

ire; 'there's about the computation for

m this kind of fencing in the dark was an aff

nd so you will so long as you 're only asked

wed. 'The last wor

'I 'll hand it to y

'A perfect gentleman! perf

ht keep from swearin

, 'why, don't you know

d a fellow, a velvet-tongue

you please?' Julia jumped up,

you see the cunning woman wants to dress you in our garments, a

he bent over him with such homely sweetness. 'One comf

ted,' she moa

while I can keep you

ada, I do l

my dear; I've

re's the

an always

e are my

re point

her quadrille. Mind you, Miss Janet, he shall dance to your tune yet. D' ye hear, sir?' The irritation

nd Seneca in the eighty-somethingth year of his age; an

u won't see the fun of dancing on the ashes. A nice king of Rome Nero was next morning! By the Lord, if I couldn't swear you'll be down on

r choice of partners: she shan't be kept in the background by a young donkey. Take any six of your own age, and six sensible men, to try you by

randada, I'm offended with you'

men on his side,' said

as long as his banker 'll let him, William-like

I should prefer it, on behalf of your guests; but I am bound to submit to your pleasure, and

nounced emphatically that he saw very little Beltham in me. The right course would have been for me to ask him then and there whether I had his consent to start for Germ

was of a very pretty shape, with a soft unpierced lobe. We danced together at the Riversley Ball, given by the squire on the night of my father's Ball in London

uppertime, and kept his eyes on us two. He forgot, or pretended to forget, my foreign engagement altoget

rked to me, seeing her twirled

like it, sir

rl I cared for by a parcel o' scampish young dogs. Right in their arms! Look at her build. She's

of my superior nature seemed to be crumbling to fragments; and beginning to feel in despair that I was wretchedly like other men, I lost by degrees the sense of my hold on her. It struck me that my worst fears of the effect produced on the princess's mind by that last scene in the lake-palace must be true, and I abandoned hope. Temple thought she tried me too cruelly. Under these circumstances I became less and less resolutely disposed to renew the forlorn conflict with my

take what the

ums-so to speak, the fractional shillings; though I

of London. By paving here and there he had, he informed me, made a concrete for the wheels to roll on. He calculat

de facto harnessed them to my fortunes; and if you doubt me on the point of success, I refer you to Dettermain and Newson. All I stipulate for is to maintain my po

must have

, mo

you mean by r

in advance upon the, material success I have a perfect justification to anticipate, and I cannot allow the old gentleman to suppose that I retrench for the purpose of giving a large array of figures to your bankers' book. It would be sheer madness. I cannot do it. I cannot afford to do it. When you are on a runaway horse, I prefer to say a racehorse,-Richie, you must ride him

o him not

me one second-counsel you to write to Prince Ernest instanter, proposing formally for his

orget!' I

tish racehorse, with, if you like, a New Forest fly operating within an inch of his

of the squire's mind, I should be simply lying

randfather has

n, you know he

im that you have no

t till he i

usband of the princess, shall be the first gentleman in England- that is, Europe. Oh! not ruling a coterie: not dazzling the world with entertainments.' He thought himself in earnest when he said, 'I attach no mighty importance to these things, though there is no harm I can perceive in leading the fashion-none that I see in having a consummate style. I know your taste, and hers, Richie, the noble lady's. She shall gover

Englishman reputed of good breeding, informed the son that he had actually met the father in lofty society, at Viscountess Sedley's, at Lady Dolchester's, at Bramham DeWitt's, and heard of him as a frequenter of the Prussian and Austrian Embassy entertainments; and also that he was admitted to the exclusive dinner-parties of the Countess de Strode, 'which are,' he observed, in the moderated tone of an astonishment devoting itself to propagation, 'the cream of society.' Indubitably, then, my father was an impostor: more Society proved it. The squire listened like one pelted by a storm, sure of his day to come at the close of the two months. I gained his commendation by shunning the metropolitan Balls, nor did my father press me to appear at them. It was tacitly understood

om their own people, out of their own sets. Foreign women never get on

er. She named a duke's daughter, an earl's. Of course I should have to stop the scandal: otherwise the choice I had was unrestricted. My father she evidently disliked, but she jus

t of bold irony, proposed Lady Kane for President of his Tattle and Scandal Club,-a club of ladies dotted with select gentlemen, the idea of which Jorian DeWitt claimed the merit of starting, and my father surrendered it to him, with the reservation, that Jorian intended an association of backbiters pledged to reveal all they knew, whereas the Club, in its present form, was an engine of morality and decency, and a social safeguard, as well as an amusement. It comprised a Committee of Investigation, and a Court of Appeal; its object was to arraign slander.

s originated to serve as a club for Lady Edbury, but

ources of ways and means. I put my name to a bond for several thousand pounds, in conjunction with Lord Edbury, thinking my father right in wishing to keep my cheque-book unworried, lest the squire should be seized with a spas

ak of rage from the squire, and I, after hearing them, was almost disposed to side with him; they suggested an inexplicable magnificence, and created an image of a man portentously endowed with the capacity to throw dust in th

's magician, if you like,' said Julia, 'only-good! A perfect gentleman! and I'll say again, confound his enemies.' She presume

w story 'bout a D

aptain Bulsted. 'I d

the Bench. Lord Shale, our new Lord-Lieutenant, brought it down. A trick they playe

ad

a Dauphin mixed up wit

Din

xclaimed the cap

and you ought to know it if you'r

stand one syllable of what you're saying; but if it means any insinuation against the gentleman who condescends to exte

. I tell you they call him Mr. Ik Dine in town. Ik Dine and a Dauphin! They made a regular clown and pantaloon o' the pair, I'm told. Couple o' pretenders to Throne

he squire continued,

th of 'm 'twas nothing but Port-wine stains and pimples. Ha! ha! And, William, will you believe it?-the couple went round begging the company to count spots-ha! ha! to prove their big birth! Oh, Lord, I'd ha' paid a penny to be there! A Jack o' Bedlam Ik Dine damned idiot!-makes name o' Richmond stink.' (Captain Bulsted shot a wild stare round the room to

ted supplicated feverishly, r

eye twice. Fellow came here and talked me over to grant him a couple o' months to prove he hasn't swindled his son of every scrap of his money. We shall soon

sir; the old heredit

mean, Wil

is son, sir, and you are trying the yo

e of your inheritance from your poor broken-hearted mother, with interest, and treat you like a man? And never played spy, never made an inquiry, till I heard the scamp had been fastening on you like a blood-suck

owed to him, but would rather submit to the scourge, or

Stick to decent people. Why, you don't expect he'll be locked up in the Tower for a finish, eh

d me his hand. 'You ha

ou, my boy, for ta

the parson. Confound the fellow! I say he's guilty of treason. Pooh! who cares! He cuts out the dandies of his day, does he? He's past sixty, if he's a month. It's all damned harlequinade. Let him twirl off one columbine or another, or a dozen, and then-the last of him! Fellow makes the world look like a farce. He 's got about eight feet by five to caper on, and all London gaping at him-geese! Are you a gentleman and a man of sense, Harry Richmond, to let yourself be lugged about

oing through that process. 'Whew!' said he, 'and enough to make any Christian sweat! You're in a bath, Harry. I wouldn't expect the man wh

durance had re

his brutal story from the Lo

't have you going to him and be

w, squire, I have had my dose. And you will permit me to observe, th

he better for it af

will do us both good. The squire,' he murmured, wiping his forehead as he went out

ding us, 'Aren't you tw

' said the captain. 'We are anxious to

ressed him. 'We'll all have a tou

o me, 'Was it-the

e dread at my heart of some

reach grandada's hands by afternoon post, Harry, and he finds objectionable passages blotted or cut out; and as long as the scissors don't touch the business columns and the debates, h

led me out of view of t

ned thanks on behalf of an Estate of the Realm: it read monstrously.

d, with varying fortunes. She gazed on me, to give me the comfort of her sympathy, too much, and I was too intent on the vision of my father either persecuted by lies or guilty of hideous follies,

,' said the squire. 'It

he old tune, which

, and the brilliant direct beam of those thick-browed, firm, clear eyes, with her frown, and her set lips and brave figure, when she wa