15 Apparently heedless of the various remarks which reached their ears, our strangers after they had from their station sufficiently surveyed the beauties of the ball, strolled arm-in-arm through the rooms. Having sauntered through the ball and card rooms, they passed the door that led to the entrance passage and gazed with other loiterers upon the newcomers ascending the stairs. Here the two younger strangers renewed their whispered conversation while the eldest who was also the tallest one carelessly leaning against the wall employed himself for a few moments and thrusting his fingers through his hair.  The next moment diverted by a new care the stranger applied his digital members to the arranging and caressing of a remarkably splendid brooch set in the bosom of a shirt the rude texture of which formed a singular contrast with the magnificent sense of the embellishment and the fineness of the one ruffle suffered by our modern Hyperion to make its appearance beneath his cinnamon colored coat sleeve. These little personal arrangements completed and a dazzling snuff box released from the confinement of a side pocket tapped thrice enlightened of two pinches of its titillating luxury the stranger now with the guardian eye of friendship directed a searching glance to the dress of his friends. There all appeared meat for his strict scrutiny save indeed that the supercilious looking stranger having just drawn forth his gloves the lining of his coat pocket which was rather soiled into the bargain had not returned to its internal station. The tall stranger seeing this little in elegance kindly thrust three fingers with a sudden and light dive into his friend's pocket and affectionately repulsed the forwardness of the intrusive lining. The supercilious stranger no sooner felt the touch than he started back and whispered to his officious companion what among friends Ned by now curbed the nature of thee for one night at least before he of the flowing locks had time to answer the master of the ceremonies who had for the last three minutes been eyeing the strangers through his glass stepped forward with a sliding bow and the handsome gentleman taking upon himself the superiority and precedence over his comrades was the first to return the courtesy. He did this was so good a grace and so pleasing and expression of countenance that the censor of bows was charmed at once and with a second and more profound salutation announced himself and his office you would like to dance probably gentlemen he asked glancing at each but directing his words to the one who had pre-possessed him you are very good said the comely stranger and for my part I shall be extremely indebted to you for the exercise of your powers in my behalf allow me to return with you to the ballroom and I can there point out to you the objects of my special admiration the master of the ceremonies bowed as before and he and his new acquaintance strolled into the ballroom followed by the two comrades of the latter have you been long in baths sir inquired the monarch of the rooms no indeed we only arrived this evening from london no we made a little tour across the country ah very pleasant this fine weather yes especially in the evenings oh romantic thought the man of balls as he rejoined aloud why the nights are agreeable and the moon is particularly favorable to us not always quote the stranger true true the night before last was dark but in general surely the moon has been very bright the stranger was about to answer but checked himself and simply bowed his head as in a scent I wonder who they are thought the master of the ceremonies pray sir said he in a low tone is that gentleman that tall gentleman anyway related to lord you know who I cannot but think I see a family likeness not in the least related to his lordship answered the stranger but he is of a family that have made a noise in the world though he as well as my other friend is merely a commoner laying a stress on the last word nothing sir can be more respectable than a commoner of family returned to polite mr so-and-so with a bow I agree with you sir answered the stranger with another but heavens and the stranger started for at that moment his eye caught for the first time at the far end of the room the youthful and brilliant countenance of lucy brandon do I see rightly or is that miss brandon it is indeed that lovely young lady said mr so-and-so I congratulate you on knowing one so admired I suppose that you being blessed with her acquaintance do not need the formality of my introduction humph said the stranger rather shortly and uncourteously no perhaps you had better present me by what name shall I have that honor sir discreetly inquired that nomenclator clifford answered the stranger captain clifford upon this the prim master of the ceremonies threading his path through the now fast-filling room approach towards lucy to obey mr clifford's request meanwhile that gentleman before he followed the steps of the two delirious spirit of the place paused and said to his friends in a tone careless yet not without command hark ye gentlemen oblige me by being as civil and silent as you are able and don't thrust yourselves upon me as you are accustomed to do whenever you see no opportunity of indulging me with that honor with the least show of propriety so saying and waiting no reply mr clifford hastened after the master of the ceremonies our friend grows mighty imperious said long ned whom our readers have already recognized in the tall stranger is the way with your rising geniuses answer the moralizing augustus tomlinson suppose we go to the car room and get up a rubber well thought of said Ned yawning i think he was very apt to do in society and i wish nothing worse to those who try our rubbers then that they may be well cleaned by them upon this widowsism the colossus of roads glancing towards the glass strutted off arm and arm with his companion to the card room during this short conversation the reintroduction of mr clifford the stranger of the rectory and deliverer of dr sloperton to lucy brandon had been effected and the hand of the heiress was already engaged according to the custom of that time for the two ensuing dances it was about 20 minutes after the above presentation had taken place that lord malever and william brandon entered the rooms and the buzz created by the appearance of the noted peer and the distinguished lawyer had scarcely subsided before the royal personage expected to grace the festive scene as the newspaper say of a great room with plenty of miserable looking people in it arrived the most attractive persons in europe may be found among the royal family of england and the great personage then at bath in consequence of certain political intrigues wished at that time especially to make himself as popular as possible having gone the round of the old ladies and assured them as the court journal assures the old ladies at this day that they were morning stars and swan like wonders the princess spied brandon and immediately beckon to him with a familiar gesture the smooth but sadder nine lawyer approached the royal presence with the manner that peculiarly distinguished him and which blended in no ungraceful mixture a species of stiffness that passed with the crowd for native independence with a supple insinuation that was usually deemed the token of latent benevolence of heart there was something indeed in brandon's address that always pleased the great and they liked him the better because though he stood on no idle political points mere differences in the view taken of a hair breadth such as a corn law or a catholic bill alteration in the church or a reform in parliament yet he invariably talked so like a man of honor except when with malevolence that his urbanity seemed attachment to individuals and his concessions to power sacrifices of private opinion for the sake of obliging his friends i'm very glad indeed said the royal personally to see mr brandon looking so much better never was the crown in greater want of his services and if rumors speak true they will soon be required in another department of his profession brandon bowed and answered so please your royal highness they will always be at the command of a king from whom i have experienced such kindness in any capacity for which his majesty may deem them fitting it is true then said his royal highness significantly i congratulate you the quiet dignity of the bench must seem to you a great change after a career so busy and restless i fear i shall feel it so at first your royal highness answered brandon for like even the toil of my profession and at this moment when i'm in full practice it more than ever but checking himself at once his majesty's wishes and my satisfaction and complying with them are more than sufficient to remove any momentary regret i might otherwise have felt in quitting those toils which have now become to me a second nature it is possible we joined the prince that his majesty took into consideration the delicate state of health which in common with the whole public i grieve to see the papers have attributed to one of the most distinguished ornaments of the bar so please your royal highness answered brandon coolly and with a smile which the most piercing i could not have believed the mask to the agony then gnawing at his nerves it is the interest of my rivals to exaggerate the little ailments of a weak constitution i thank providence that i am now entirely recovered and at no time of my life have i been less unable to discharge so far as my native and mental incapacities will allow the duties of any occupation however arduous nay as the brute grows accustomed to the mill so i have grown wedded to business and even the brief relaxation i've now allowed myself seems to me rather irksome than pleasurable i rejoice to hear you speak thus answered his royal highness warmly and i trust for many years and added he in a lower tone in the highest chamber of the senate that we may profit by your talents the times are those in which many occasions occur that oblige all true friends of the constitution to quit minor employment for that great constitutional one that concerns us all the highest and the meanest and the royal voice sank still lower i feel justified in assuring you that the office of chief justice alone is not considered by his majesty as a sufficient reward for your generous sacrifice of present ambition to the difficulties of government brandon's proud heart swelled and that moment the various pains of hell would scarcely have been felt while the aspiring schemer was thus agreeably engaged my leverer sliding through the crowd with that grace which charmed everyone old and young and addressing to all he knew some lively or affectionate remark made his way to the dancers among whom he had just caught a glimpse of lucy i wonder he thought whom she is dancing with i hope it is that ridiculous fellow must stop who tells a good story against himself or that handsome ass belmont who looks at his own legs instead of seeming to have eyes for no one but his partner ah if tarquin had but known women as well as i do he would have had no reason to be rough with lucretia desert thousand pities that experience comes in women as in the world just when it begins to be no longer of use to us as he made these moral reflections malever gained the dancers and beheld lucy listening with downcast eyes and cheeks that evidently blushed to a young man whom a leverer acknowledged at once to be one of the best-looking fellows he had ever seen the stranger's countenance despite an extreme darkness of complexion was to be sure from the great regularity of the features rather effeminate but on the other hand his figure though slender and graceful betrayed to an experienced eye an extraordinary proportion of sinew and muscle and even the dash of a feminist seat in the countenance was accompanied by so manly and frank and air and was so perfectly free from all cox combry or self-conceit that it did not in the least decrease the prepossessing effect of his appearance an angry embittered pang shot across that portion of malever's frame which the earl fought fit for want of another name to call his heart how cursedly pleased she looks muttered he by heaven that stolen glance under that left eyelid dropped as suddenly as it is raised and he ha how firmly he holds that little hand i think i see him paddle with it and then the dog's earnest intent look and she all blushes though she dare not look up to meet his gaze feeling it by intuition oh the demure modest shame-faced hypocrite how silent she is she can pray enough to me i would give my promise garter if she would but talk to him talk talk laugh prattle only simpler in god's name and i shall be happy but that bashful blushing silence it is insupportable thank heaven the dance is over thank heaven again i've not felt such pain since the last nightmare i had after dining with her father with a face all smiles but with a mean in which more dignity than he ordinarily assumed was worn malever now moved towards lucy who was leaning on her partner's arm the earl who had ample tagged where his consummate selfishness did not warp it knew well how to act the lever without running ridiculously into the folly of seeming to play the hoary dangler he sought rather to be lively than sentimental and beneath the whip to conceal the suitor having paid then with a careless gallantry his first compliments he entered into so animated a conversation interspersed with so many naïve yet palpably just observations on the character's present that perhaps he had never appeared to more brilliant advantage i think as the music was about to recommence malever with a careless glance that lucy's partner said who miss brandon now allow me the agreeable duty of conducting her to her father i believe answered lucy and her voice suddenly became timid that according to the laws of the rooms i'm engaged to this gentleman for another dance cliford in an assured and easy tone replied in ascent as he spoke malever honored him with a more accurate survey than he had hitherto bestowed on him and whether or not there was any expression of contempt or superciliousness in the survey it was sufficient to call up the indignant blood to cliford's cheek returning the look with interest he said to lucy i believe miss brandon that the dance is about to begin and lucy obeying the hint left the aristocratic malever to his own meditations at that moment the master of the ceremonies came bowing by half afraid to address a greater person as malever but willing to show his respect by the profoundness of his salutation aha my dear mister you know said the earl holding out both his hands to the lysergus of the rooms how are you pray can you inform me who that young man is now dancing with miss brandon it is let me see oh it is a captain cliford my lord a very fine young man my lord as your lordship never met him never who is he one under your more a special patronage said the earl smiling nay indeed answered the master of the ceremonies with a simple of gratification i scarcely know who he is yet the captain only made his appearance here tonight for the first time he came with two other gentlemen ah there they are and he pointed the earl scrutinizing attention to the elegant forms of mr augustus tomlinson and mr ned pepper just emerging from the card rooms the swagger of the latter gentleman was so peculiarly important that malever angry as he was could scarcely help laughing the master of the ceremonies noted the earl's countenance and remarked that that fine-looking man seemed disposed to give himself airs judging from the gentleman's appearance said the earl dryly ned's face to say truth did betoken his affection for the bottle i should imagine that he was much more accustomed to give himself thorough drafts ah renewed the arbiter elegant tiarum who had not heard malever's observation which was uttered in a very low voice ah they seem real dashers dashers repeated malever true haber dashers long dead now having in the way of his profession acquitted himself tolerably well at the card table thought he had purchased the right to parade himself through the rooms and show the ladies what stuff a pepper could be made of leaning with his left hand on tomlinson's arm and employing the right in fanning himself furiously with his huge chapeau bras the lengthy adventurer stalked slowly along now setting out one leg jointly now the other and ogling the ladies with a kind of irish look namely a look between a wink and a stare released from the presence of clifford who kept a certain check on his companions the apparition of ned became glaringly conspicuous and wherever he passed a universal whisper succeeded who can he be said the widow made more tis a droll creature but what a head of hair from my part answered the spinster sneerol i think he is a linen draper in disguise for i heard him talk to his companion of tape well well thought malever it would be but kind to seek out brandon and hint to him in what company his knees seems to have fallen and so thinking he glided to the corner where with a gray headed old politician the astute lawyer was counting the affairs of europe in the interim the second dance had ended and clifford was conducting lucy to her seat each charmed with the other when he found himself abruptly tapped on the back and turning round an alarm for such taps were not unfamiliar to him he saw the cool countenance of long ned with one finger sagaciously laid beside the nose how now said clifford between his ground teeth did i not tell thee to put that huge bulk of vine as far for me as possible huh grunted ned if these are my thanks i may as well keep my kindness to myself but know you my kid that lawyer brandon is here peering through the crowd at this very moment in order to catch a glimpse of that woman's face of thine ha and so clifford in a very quick tone begone then i will meet you without the rooms immediately clifford now turned to his partner and bowing very low in reality to hide his face from those sharp eyes which had once seen it in the court of justice berm flap said i trust madame i shall have the honor to meet you again is it if i may be allowed to ask with your celebrated uncle that you are staying or with my father answered lucy concluding the sentence clifford had left unfinished but my uncle has been with us though i fear he leaves us tomorrow clifford's eyes sparkled he made no answer but bowing again receded into the crowd and disappeared several times that night did the brightest eyes in summer suture row anxiously around the rooms in search of our hero but he was seen no more it was on the stairs that clifford encountered his comrades taking an arm of each he gained the door without any adventure worth noting save that being kept back by the crowd for a few moments the moralizing augustus tomlinson who honored the moderate wigs by enrolling himself among their number took up poor passé le temps a tall gold-headed cane and weighing it across his finger with a musing air said alas among our supporters we often meet heads as heavy but of what a different medal the crowd now permitting augustus was walking away with his companions and in that absence of mind characteristic of philosophers unconsciously bearing within the gold-headed object of his reflection when a stately footman stepping up to him said sir my cane cane fellow said tomlinson ah i'm so absent here is thy cane only think of my carrying off the man's cane ned ha ha absent indeed granted a knowing chairman watching the receding figures of the three gentlemen body of me but it was the cane that was about to be absent in the chapter 15 part 2 chapter 16 of paul clifford by edward bower litten this liberal box recording is in the public domain chapter 16 welcome my dear rogues dear boys bluster ending boy you are the bravest fellows that ever scoured yet shadow well scours kato the the salian was want to say that some things may be done unjustly that many things may be done justly lord bacon being a justification of every rascality although our three worthies had taken unto themselves a splendid lodging in milson street which to please ned was over a hairdresser's shop yet instead of returning the other or repairing to such taverns as might seem best befitting their fashion and garb they struck it once from the gay parts of the town and tarried not till they reached a mean-looking ale house in a remote suburb the door was open to them by an elderly lady and clifford stalking before his companions into an apartment at the back of the house asked if the other gentlemen were come yet no return the dame old mr. bags came in about 10 minutes ago but hearing more work might be done he went out again bring the lush and the pipes all blown cried ned throwing himself on a bench we were never at a loss for company you indeed never can be who are always inseparably connected with the object of your admiration said tomlinson dryly and taking up an old newspaper ned who though choleric was a capital fella and could bear a joke on himself smiled and drawing forth the little pair of scissors began trimming his nails curse me said he after a momentary silence if this is not a devilish deal pleasanter them playing the fine gentleman in that great room with the rose in one's buttonhole would say you master love it clifford as henceforth despite his other aliases we shall denominate our hero who had thrown himself at full length on a bench at the far end of the room and who seemed plunged into a sullen reverie now looked up for a moment and then turning round and presenting the dorsal part of his body to long ned muttered fish hark ye master love it said long ned coloring I don't know what has come over you of late but I would have you to learn that gentlemen are entitled to courtesy and polite behavior and so do you see if you ride your high horse upon me splice my extremities if I won't have satisfaction his man be quiet said tomlinson philosophically snuffing the candles for companions to quarrel is extremely immoral don't you see that the captain is in a reverie what good man ever loves to be interrupted in his meditations even alfred the great could not bear perhaps at this moment with the true anxiety of a worthy chief the captain is designing something for our welfare captain indeed muttered long ned darting a wrathful look at clifford who had not dain to pay any attention to mr pepper's threat for my part I cannot conceive what was the matter with us when we chose this green slip of the gallows tree for our captain of the district to be sure he did very well at first and that robbery of the old lord was not ill planned but lately nay nay quoth augustus interrupting the gigantic grumbler the nature of man is prone to discontent allow that our present design of setting up the gate lathario and trying our chances at bath or an aris is owing as much to love its promptitude as to our invention and what good will come of it return net as he lighted his pipe answering that was I not dressed as fine as a lord and did not I walk three times up and down that great room without being a job the better for it ah but you know not how many secret conquests you may have made you cannot win a prize by looking upon it huh granted net applying himself discontentedly to the young existence of his pipe as for the captain's partner renewed tomlinson who maliciously delighted in exciting the jealousy of the handsome tax collector but that was the designation by which augustus thought proper to style himself and companions I will turn toy if she be not already half in love with him and did you hear the old gentleman who cut into our rubber say what a fine fortune she had faith net it is lucky for us to that we all agreed to go shares in our marriage speculations I fancy the worthy captain will think it a bad bargain for himself I'm not so sure of that mr tomlinson said long net sourly eyeing his comrade some women may be caught by a smooth skin and a showy manner but real masculine beauty eyes color and hair mr tomlinson must ultimately make its way so hand me the brandy and cease your jaw well well said tomlinson I'll give you a toast the prettiest girl in england and that's miss brandon you shall give no such toast sir said clifford starting from the bench but the devil is miss brandon to you and now net seeing that the tall hero looked on him with an unfavorable aspect here's my hand forgive me if I was uncivil tomlinson will tell you in a maxim men are changeable here's to your health and it shall not be my fault gentlemen if we have not a merry evening this speech short as it was met with great applause from the two friends and clifford his president stationed himself in a huge chair at the head of the table scarcely had he assumed this dignity before the door opened and half a dozen of the gentleman confederates trooped somewhat noisily into the apartment softly softly missus said the president recovering all his constitutional gaiety yet lending it with a certain negligent command respect for the chair if you please tis the way with all assemblies where the public purse is a matter of deferential interest hear him cried tomlinson what my old friend bags said the president you have not come empty handed i will swear your honor's face is like the table of contents through the good things in your pockets ah captain clifford said the veteran groaning and shaking his reverend head i've seen the day when there was not a lad in england forked so largely so comprehensively like as i did but as king lear says at common garden i'd be so now but your zeal is as youthful as ever my fine fellow said the captain soothingly and if you do not clean out the public as thoroughly as heretofore it is not the fault of your inclinations know that it is not quite the tax collectors unanimously and if ever a pocket is to be picked neatly quietly and effectually added the complimentary clifford i do not note to this day throughout the three kingdoms a neater quieter and more effective set of fingers than old bags is the veteran bowed disclaimingly and took his seat among the heartfelt good wishes of the whole assemblage and now gentlemen said clifford as soon as the revelers had provided themselves with their wanted luxuries potatory and humus let us hear your adventures and rejoice our eyes with their produce the gallant adi shall begin but first a toast may those who leap from a hedge never leap from a tree this toast being drunk with enthusiastic applause fighting adi began the recital of his little history you seize captain said he putting himself in a marshal position and looking clifford full in the face that i'm not addicted to much blarney little cry and much wool is my motto at ten o'clock a.m saw the enemy in the shape of a dr divinity blow me says i to all bags but i'll do his reverence blow me says all bags but you shan't you will have us scragged if you touches the church my grandmother says i bags tells the pals all in a fuss about it what care i i puts on a decent dress and goes to the doctor as a decayed soldier what supplies the shops in the turning line his reverence of that jolly dog as ever you see was at dinner over a fine roast pig so i tells him i have some bargains at home for him spliced me if the doctor did not think he had got a prize so he puts on his boots and he comes with me to my house but when i gets him into a lane outcome my pops give up doctor says i others must share the goods of the church now you has no idea what a row he made but i did the thing and there's an end aunt bravo addy cry clifford and the word echoed round the board addy put a purse on the table and the next gentleman was called to confession it's skills not boots not gentlest of readers to record each of the narratives that now followed one another o bags in a special preserved his well earned reputation by emptying six pockets which have been filled with every possible description of petty valuables peasant and prince appeared alike to have come under his hands and perhaps the good old man had done in the town more towards affecting and equality of goods among different ranks than all the reformers from cornwall to carlough yet so keen was his appetite for the sport that the veteran appropriator absolutely burst into tears at not having forked more i love a warm hearted enthusiasm cried clifford handling the movables while he gazed lovingly on the ancient perloiner made new cases never teach us to forget old bags as soon as this sentiment had been duly drunk and mr bagshot had dried his tears and applied himself to his favorite drink which by the way was blue ruin the work of division took place the discretion and impartiality of the captain in this arduous part of his duty attracted universal admiration and each gentleman having carefully pouched his share the youthful president ham thrice and the society became aware of a proposed speech gentleman began clifford and his main supporter the sapient augustus shouted out here gentlemen you all know that when some months ago you were pleased partly at the instigation of gentleman george god bless him partly from the exaggerated good opinion expressed of me by my friends to elect me to the high honor of the commander of this district i myself was by no means ambitious to assume that rank which i knew well was far beyond my merits and that responsibility which i knew with equal certainty was too weighty for my powers your voices however overruled my own and as mr muddle pud the great metaphysician in that excellent paper the asinium was want to observe the susceptibilities innate extensible incomprehensible and eternal existing in my bosom were infinitely more powerful than the shallow suggestions of reason that ridiculous thing which all wise men and judicious asinians sedulously stifled plague take the man what is he talking about said long net who we have seen was of an envious temper in a whisper to old bags old bags jerk his head in a word gentlemen renewed clifford your kindness overpowered me and despite my cooler inclinations i accepted your flattering proposal since then i have endeavored so far as i have been able to advance your interests i've kept a vigilant eye upon all my neighbors i have from county to county established numerous correspondence and our exertions have been carried on with a promptitude that has ensured success gentlemen i do not wish to boast but on these nights of periodical meetings when every quarter brings us to go halves when we meet in private to discuss the affairs of the public show our earnings as it were in privy council and divide them amicably as it were in the cabinet here here for mr tomlinson it is customary for your captain for the time being to remind you of his services engage your pardon for his deficiencies and your good wishes for his future exertions gentlemen has it ever been said of paul love it that he heard of a prize and forgot to tell you of his news never never loud cheering has it ever been said of him that he sent others to seize the booty and stayed at home to think how it should be spent no no repeated cheers has it ever been said of him that he took less share than his due of your danger and more of your guineas cries in the negative accompanied with vehement applause gentlemen i thank you for these flattering and audible testimonials in my favor but the points in which i have dwelt however necessary to my honor would prove but little for my merits they might be worthy notice in your comrade you demand more subtle duties in your chief gentlemen has it ever been said of paul love it that he sent out brave men on forlorn hopes that he hazarded your own heads by rash attempts in acquiring pictures of king george's that zeal in short was greater in him than caution or that his love of a quid a guinea ever made him neglectful of your just aversion to a quad a prison unanimous cheering gentlemen since i have had the honor to preside over your welfare fortune which favors the bold has not been unmerciful to you but three of our companions have been missed from our peaceful festivities one gentleman i myself expelled from our core for un gentlemen like practices he picked pockets of fogels handkerchiefs it was a vulgar employment some of you gentlemen have done the same for amusement jack little fort did it for occupation i expost you later with him in public and in private mr pepper cut his society mr tomlinson read him an essay on real greatness of soul always in vain he was pumped by the mob for the theft of a bird's eye wipe the fault i had borne with the detection was unpardonable i expelled him who's here so base as would be a focal hunter if any speak for him have i offended who's here so rude as would not be a gentleman if any speak for him have i offended i pause for a reply what none then none have i offended loud cheers gentleman i may truly add that i have done no more to jack little fork than you should do to paul love it the next vacancy in our ranks was occasioned by the loss of patrick bunderbal you know gentlemen the vehement exertions that i made to save that misguided creature whom i have made exertions no less earnest to instruct but he chose to swindle under the name of the honorable captain's smycoe the peerage gave him the lie once his case was one of aggravation and he was so remarkably ugly that he created no interest he left us for a foreign exile and if as a man i lament him i confessed to you gentlemen as a tax collector i'm easily consoled our third loss must be fresh in your memory peter popwell as bold a fellow as ever breathed is no more a movement in the assembly peace be with him he died on the field of battle shot dead by a scotch colonel whom poor popwell thought to rob of nothing with an empty pistol his memory gentlemen in solemn silence these make the catalog of our losses resume the youthful chief so soon as the red cup had crowned the memory of peter popwell i'm proud even in sorrow to think that the blame of those losses rests not with me and now friends and followers gentlemen of the road the street the theater and the shop prigs toby men and squares of the cross according to the laws of our society i resign into your hands that power which for two quarterly terms you have confided to mine ready to sink into your ranks as a comrade nor unwilling to renounce the painful honor i've borne born with much infirmity it is true but at least with a sincere desire to serve that cause with which you have entrusted me so saying the captain descended from his chair amidst the most uproarious applause and as soon as the first burst had partially subsided august as tomlinson rising with one hand in his breeches pocket and the other stretched out said gentlemen i moved that paul love it be again chosen as our captain for the ensuing term of three months deafening cheers much might i say about his surpassing merits but why dwell upon that which is obvious life is short why should speeches be long our lives perhaps are shorter than the lives of other men why should not our harangues be of a suitable brevity gentlemen i shall say but one word in favor of my excellent friend of mine say i i of mine of yours he is a friend to all of us a prime minister is not more useful to his followers and more burdensome to the public than i am proud to say is paul love it loud plaudits what i shall urge in his favor is simply this the man whom opposite parties unite in praising must have super eminent merit of all your companions gentlemen paul love it is the only man who to that merit can advance acclaim applause you all know gentlemen that our body has long been divided into two factions each jealous of the other each desirous of ascendancy and each emulous which shall put the greatest number of fingers into the public pie in the language of the vulgar the one faction would be called swindlers and the other highwaymen i gentlemen whom fond of finding new names for things and for persons and i'm a bit of a politician call the one wigs and the other tories clamors cheering of the former body i'm esteemed no un influential member of the latter faction mr baggs is justly considered the most shining ornament mr adi and mr edward pepper can scarcely be said to belong entirely to either they unite the good qualities of both british compounds some term them i term them liberal aristocrats cheers i now call upon you all wig or swindler tory or highwaymen british compounds or liberal aristocrats i call upon you all to name me one man whom you will all agree to elect all love it forever gentlemen continue the sagacious augustus that shout is sufficient without another word i propose as your captain mr paul love it and i seconds the motion said all mr baggs our hero being now by the unanimous applause of his confederates restored to the chair of office returned thanks and a neat speech and scarlet gem declared with great solemnity that it did equal honor to his head and heart the funders of eloquence being hushed flashes of lightning or as the vulgar say glasses of gin gleamed about good old mr baggs stuck however to his blue ruin and addy to the bottle of bingo some among whom were clifford and the wise augustus call for wine and clifford who exerted himself to the utmost in supporting the gay duties of his station to care that the song should vary the pleasures of the bowl of the songs we have only been enabled to preserve to the first is by long dead and though we confess we can see but little in it yet perhaps from some familiar illusion or other with which we are necessarily unacquainted it produced a prodigious sensation it ran thus the rogues recipe your honest fool a rogue to make as great as can be seen sir to hackneyed rogues you first must take then place your fool between sir verges of dunghill cock ashamed of self when paired with game ones and wildest elephants are tamed if stuck betwixt to tame ones the other effusion with which we have the honor to favor our readers is a very amusing duet which took place between fighting adi and a tall thin robber who was a dangerous fellow in a mob and was therefore called mobbing frances it was commenced by the latter mobbing frances the best of all robbers as ever i know is the bold fighting adi the pride of the road fighting adi my hero i saw you today a purse full of yellow boys seas and as just at present i'm low in the lay i'll borrow a quid if you please oh bold fighting adi the knowing the natty by us all it must sure be confessed though your shoppers and snobbers are pretty good robbers a soldier is always the best fighting adi stubble your wids hold your tongue you want to trick i lend you my quids not one by dick eye mobbing frances oh what a beast is a niggerly ruffler nabbing grabbing all for himself hang it old fellow i'll hit you a muffler since you won't give me a pinch of the pelt you has not a heart for the general distress you cares not a mag if our party should fall and if scarlet gem were not good at a press by goals it would soon be all up with us all oh scarlet gem he is trusty and trim like his wig to his paw sticks his conscience to him but i vows i despise as the fellow who prizes more his own ends than the popular stock sir and the soldier as bones for himself and his crones should be boned like a traitor himself at the block sir the severe response of mobbing frances did not in the least ruffle the constitutional calmness of fighting adi but the wary cliford seeing that frances had lost his temper and watchful over the least sign of disturbance among the company instantly called for another song and mobbing frances suddenly knocked down old bags the night was far gone and so were the wits of the honest tax gatherers when the president commanded silence and the convivialists knew that their chief was about to issue forth the orders for the ensuing term nothing could be better time than such directions during merriment and before oblivion gentlemen said the captain i will now with your leave impart to you all the plans i have formed for each you adi shall repair to london be the windsor road and the pearly use of pinlaco your special care look you my hero do these letters they will apprise you of much work i need not caution you to silence like the oyster you never open your mouth but for something honest old bags a rich grazier will be in smithfield on thursday his name is hodges and he will have somewhat like a thousand pounds in his pouch he is green fresh and avaricious offered to his system and defrauding his neighbors in a bargain and cease not till thou has done that with him which he wished to do to others be excellent oh man like the frog fish which fishes for other fishes with two horns that resemble baits the prey darted the horns and are down the throat in an instant for the dearest gem these letters announce a prize fat is parson pliant full is his purse and he rides from henley to oxford on friday i need say no more as for the rest of you gentlemen on this paper you will see your destinations fixed i want you you will find enough work till we meet again this day three months myself augustus tomlinson and net pepper remain in bath we have business in hand gentlemen of paramount importance should you by accident meet us never acknowledge us we are in cog striking at high gain and putting on falcons plumes to do it in character you understand but this accident can scarcely occur for none of you will remain at bath by tomorrow night may the road receive you and now gentlemen speed the glass and i'll give you a sentiment by way of a spur to it much sweeter than honey is other men's money our hero's maxim was received with all the enthusiasm which agreeable truisms usually create and all mr baggs rose to address the chair unhappily for the edification of the audience the veteran's foot slipped before he had proceeded further than mr president he fell to the earth without sort of real like shooting stars he fell to rise no more his body became a capital footstool for the luxurious pepper now augustus tomlinson and clifford exchanging looks took every possible pains to promote the hilarity of the evening and before the third hour of morning had sounded they had the satisfaction of witnessing the effects of their benevolent labors in the prostrate forms of all their companions long dead naturally more capacious than the rest succumbed the last as leaves of trees said the chairman waving his hand as leaves of trees the race of man is found now fresh with dew now withering on the ground well said my hector of highways cry tomlinson and then helping himself to the wine while he employed his legs and removing the supine forms of scarlet gem and long net he continued the Homeric quotation with a pompous and self-gratulatory tone so flourished these when those have passed away we managed to get rid of our friends began clifford like wigs in place interrupted the politician right tomlinson thanks to the milder properties of our drink and perchance to the stronger qualities of our heads and now tell me my friend what thank you of our chance of success shall we catch an eros or not why really said tomlinson women are like those calculations in arithmetic which one can never bring to an exact account for my part i show stuff my calves and look out for a widow you my good fellow seem to stand a fair chance with miss you know who oh name her not cry clifford coloring even through the flush which wine had spread over his countenance ours are not the lips by which her name should be breathed and faith when i think of her i do it anonymously what have you ever thought of her before this evening yes for months answer clifford you remember some time ago when we formed the plan for robbing lord malevolver how rather for frolic than profit you rob dr slapperton of warlock while i compassionately walked home with the old gentleman well at the parson's house i met miss brandon mind if i speak of her by name you must not and by heaven but i won't swear i accompanied her home you know before morning we robbed lord malevolver the affair made a noise and i feared to endanger you all if i appeared in the vicinity of the robbery since then business diverted my thoughts we formed the plan of trying a matrimonial speculation at bat i came hither guess my surprise at seeing her and your delight added tomlinson at hearing she is as rich as she is pretty no answer clifford quickly that thought gives me no pleasure you stare i will try and explain you know dear tomlinson i'm not much of a canter and yet my heart shrinks when i look on that innocent face and hear that soft happy voice and think that my love to her can be only ruin and disgrace nay that my very address is contamination i'm at very glance towards her and insult hey day quote tomlinson have you been under my instructions and learned the true value of words and can you have any scruples left on so easy a point of conscience true you may call you're representing yourself to her as an unprofessional gentleman and so winning her affections deceit but why call it deceit when a genius for intrigue is so much neater of phrase in like manner by marrying the young lady if you say you have ruined her you just deserve to be annihilated but why not say you have saved yourself and then my dear fellow you will have done the most justifiable thing in the world phish man said clifford previously none of that softisms and sneers by the soul of sir edward coke i'm serious but look you my friend this is not a matter where it is convenient to have a tender footed conscience you see these fellows on the ground all darn clever and so forth but you and i are of a different order i've had a classical education seeing the world and mixed in decent society you too had not been long a member of our club before you distinguish yourself above us all fortunes mild on your youthful audacity you grew particular in horses and dress frequented public haunts and being a duced good-looking fellow with an inborn air of gentility in some sort of education you became sufficiently well received to acquire in a short time the manner and tone of a what shall i say a gentleman and the taste to like suitable associates this is my case too despite our labors for the public wheel the ungrateful dogs see that we are above them a single envious breast is sufficient to give us to the hangman we have agreed that we are in danger we have agreed to make an honorable retreat we cannot do so without money you know the vulgar distitch among our set nothing can be true or hanging is nation more nice than starvation you will not carry off some of the common stock though i think you just the might considering how much you have put into it what then shall we do work we cannot beg we will not in between you and me we are cursively extravagant what remains but marriage it is true said cliford with a half sigh you may well sigh my good fellow marriage is like a day's ago proceeding at best but there is no resource and now when you have got a liking to young lady who is as rich as a she increases and so gilded the pill as bright as a lord mayor's coach what the devil have you to do with scruples cliford made no answer and there was a long pause perhaps he would not have spoken so frankly as he had done if the wine had not opened his heart how proud renew tomlinson the good old matron at tim's court would be if you married a lady you have not seen her lately not for years answered our hero poor old soul i believe that she is well in health and i take care that she should not be poor in pocket but why not visit her perhaps like all great men especially of a liberal turn of mind you are ashamed of old friends a my good fellow is that like me why you know the bow of our set look a scant on me for not keeping up my dignity robbing only in company with well-dressed gentlemen and swindling under the name of our lord's nephew know my reasons are these first you must know that the old dame had set her heart on my turning out an honest man and so you have interrupted augustus honest to your party what more would you have from either prig or politician i believe continued cliford not heeding the interruption that my poor mother before she died desired that i might be reared honestly and strangers it may seem to you dame lopkins is a conscientious woman in her own way it is not her fault if i've turned out as i've done no i know well that it would grieve her to the quick to see me what i am secondly my friend under my new names various as they are jackson and howard rustlin pig wagon billiers and go to bed cavendish and solomons you may well suppose that the good persons in the neighborhood of tim's court have no suspicion that the adventurous and accomplished ruffler at present captain of this district under the new appellation of love it is in reality no other than the obscure and surnameless paul of the mug now you and i augustus have read human nature though in the black letter and i know well that were i to make my appearance in tim's court and where the old lady as she certainly would not from unkindness but in sobriety not that she loves less but heavy wet more to divulge the secret of that appearance you know well interrupted the vivacious tomlinson that the identity of your former menius with your present greatness would be easily traced the envy and jealousy of your early friends aroused a hint of your whereabout and your aliases given to the police and yourself grabbed with a slight possibility of a hempen consummation you can see me exactly answered clifford the fact is that i have observed in nine cases out of ten our bravest fellows have been taken off by the treachery of some early sweetheart or the envy of some boyish friend my destiny is not yet fixed i am worthy of better things than a ride in a cart with a nose gay in my hand and though i care not much about death in itself i am resolved if possible not to die a highwayman hence my caution and that prudential care for secrecy and safe asylums which mean less wise than you have so often thought and unnatural contrast to my conduct on the road fools said the philosophical tomlinson what has the bravery of a warrior to do with his insuring his house from fire however said clifford i send my good nurse a fine gift every now and then to assure her of my safety and thus notwithstanding my absence i show my affection by my presence excuse upon and have you never been detected by any of your quantum associates never remember in what a much more elevated sphere of life i have been thrown and who could recognize the scamp paul with a fustian jacket in gentleman paul with a laced waistcoat besides i have diligently avoided every place where i was likely to encounter those who saw me in childhood you know how little i frequent flash houses and how scrupulous i am in admitting new confederates into our band you and pepper are the only two of my associates save my protege as you express it who never deserts the cave that possess a knowledge of my identity with the lost paul and as you have both taken that dread oath to silence which to disobey until indeed i be in the jail or on the jive is almost to be assassinated i consider my secret is little likely to be broken save with my own consent true said august is nodding one more glass into bed mr chairman i pledge you my friend in our last clash i'll be philanthropically quaff all fools and may their money soon be party all fools cried thomason filling a bumper but i quarrel with the wisdom of your toast may fools be rich and rogues will never be poor i would make a better livelihood offer a rich fool than a landed estate so saying the contemplative and ever sagacious tomlinson tossed off his bumper and the pair having kindly rolled by petal applications the body of long net into a safe and quiet corner of the room mounted the stairs arm and arm in search of some nambular accommodations end of chapter 16 chapter 17 of paul cliffford by edward bower linton this liver vox recording is in the public domain chapter 17 that contrast of the hardened and mature the calm brow brooding or the project dark with the clear loving heart and spirit pure of youth i love yet hating love to mark h fletcher on the forenoon of the day after the ball the carriage of william brandon packed and prepared was at the door of his abode at bath meanwhile the lawyer was closeted with his brother my dear joseph said the barrister i do not leave you without being fully sensible of your kindness events to me both incoming hither contrary to your habits and accompanying me everywhere despite of your tastes mention it not my dear william said the kind hearted squire for your delightful society is to me the most agreeable and that's what i can say of very few people like you for for my own part i generally find the cleverest men the most unpleasant in the world and i think lawyers in particular very different indeed from your tribe you are perfectly intolerable i have now said brandon who with his usual nervous quickness of action was walking with rapid strides to encroach the apartment and scarcely noted his brother's compliment i have now another favor to request of you consider this house and the servants yours for the next month or two at least don't interrupt me it is no compliment i speak for our family benefit and then seating himself next to his brother's arm chair for fit of the gout made the squire a close prisoner brandon unfolded to his brother his cherished scheme of marrying lucy due lord malever notwithstanding the constancy of the earl's attentions to the heiress the honest squire had never dreamed of their palpable object and he was overpowered with surprise when he heard the lawyer's expectations but my dear brother he began so great a match for my lucy the lord lieutenant of the cunt and what of that cried brandon proudly and interrupting his brother is not the race of brandon which has matched its signs with royalty far nobler than that of the upstart stock of malever what is there presumptuous in the hope that the descendant of the earls of suffix should regild a fated name with some of the precious dust of the quantum silversmiths of london besides he continued after a pause lucy will be rich very rich and before two years my rank may possibly be of the same order as maleverers the squire stared and brandon not giving him time to answer resumed it is needless to detail the conversation suffice it to say that the artful barrister did not leave his brother till he had gained his point till joseph brandon had promised to remain at bath in possession of the house and establishment of his brother to throw no impediment on the suit of malever to cultivate society is before and above all not to alarm lucy who evidently did not yet favor malever exclusively by hinting to her the hopes and expectations of her uncle and father brandon now taking leave of his brother mounted to the drawing room in search of lucy he found her leaning over the guilt cage of one of her feathered favorites and speaking to the little inmate in that pretty and playful language in which all thoughts innocent yet fond should be clothed so beautiful did lucy seem as she was thus engaged in her girlish and caressing employment and so utterly unlike one meet to be the instrument of ambitious designs and the sacrifice of worldly calculations that brandon paused suddenly smitten at heart as he beheld her he was not however slow in recovering himself he approached happy he said the man of the world for whom caresses and words like these are reserved lucy turned it is ill she said pointing to the bird which sat with his feathers stiff and direct mute and heedless even of that voice which was as musical as its own poor prisoner said brandon even guilt cages and sweet tones cannot compensate to thee for the loss of the air and the wild woods but said lucy anxiously it is not confinement which makes it ill if you think so i will release it instantly how long have you had it asked brandon for three years said lucy and is it your chief favorite yes it does not sing so prettily as the other but it is far more sensible and so affectionate can you release it then ask brandon smiling would it not be better to see it die in your custody then to let it live and to see it no more oh no no said lucy eagerly when i love anyone anything i wish that it to be happy not me as she said this she took the bird from the cage and bearing it to the open window kissed it and held it on her hand in the air the poor bird turned a languid and sickly around it as if the sight of the crowded houses and busy streets presented nothing familiar or inviting and it was not to lucy with the tender courage shook it gently from her that it availed itself of the proffered liberty it flew first to an opposite balcony and then recovering from a short and as it were surprised pause took a brief circuit above the houses and after disappearing for a few minutes flew back circle the window and re-entering settled once more on the fair form of its mistress and nestled into her bosom lucy covered it with kisses you see it would not leave me said she who can said the uncle warmly charmed for the moment from every thought but that of kindness for the young and soft creature before him who can he repeated with a sigh but an old and withered aesthetic like myself i must leave you indeed see my carriages at the door will my beautiful niece among the gayities that surround her come to send now and then to remember the crab lawyer and assure him by a line of her happiness and health though i rarely write any notes but those upon cases you at least may be sure of an answer and tell me lucy if there be in all this city one so foolish as to think that these idle gems useful only as a vent for my pride in you can add a single charm to a beauty above all ornament so saying brandon produced a leaven case and touching a spring the imperial flash of diamonds which would have made glad many a patrician heart broke dazzlingly on lucy's eyes no thanks lucy said brandon in answer to his niece's disclaiming and shrinking gratitude i do honor to myself not you and i bless you my dear girl farewell should any occasion present itself from which you require an immediate advisor at once kind and wise i beseech you my dearest lucy as a parting request to have no scruples and consulting lord malever besides his friendship for me he is much interested in you and you may consult him with the more safety and assurance because and the lawyer smiled he is perhaps the only man in the world whom my lucy could not make in love with her his gallantry may appear adulation but it is never akin to love promise me that you will not hesitate in this lucy gave the promise readily and brandon continued in a careless tone i hear that you danced last night with a young gentleman whom no one knew and whose companions bore a very strange appearance in a place like bath society is too mixed not to render the greatest caution in forming acquaintances absolutely necessary you must pardon me my dearest niece if i remark that a young lady owes it not only to herself but to her relations to observe the most rigid circumspection of conduct this is a wicked world and the peach like bloom of character is easily rubbed away in these points malever can be of great use to you his knowledge of character his penetration into men and his tact in manners are unearing pray be guided by him whomsoever he warns you against you may be sure is unworthy of your acquaintance god bless you you will write to me often and frankly dear lucy tell me all that happens to you all that interests me all that displeases brandon then who had seemingly disregarded the blushes with which during his speech lucy's cheeks had been spread folded his niece in his arms and hurried as if to hide his feelings into his carriage when the horses had turned the street he directed the postilians to stop at lord malever's now said he to himself if i can get this clever cox comb to second my schemes and play according to my game and not according to his own vanity i shall have a night of the garter for my nephew-in-law meanwhile lucy all in tears for she loved her uncle greatly ran down to the square to show him brandon's magnificent present ah said the square with a sigh few men were born with more good generous and great quality spitty only that his cheap desire was to get on in the world for my part i think no motive makes greater and more cold-hearted rogues than my brother william end of chapter 17 chapter 18 part one of paul clifford by edward bulver liton this liverbox recording is in the public domain chapter 18 part one why did she love him curious fool be still is human love the growth of human will to her he might be gentleness lord byron in three weeks from the time of his arrival captain quifford was the most admired man in bat it is true the gentlemen who have a quicker attack as to the respectability of their own sex than women might have looked a little shy upon him had he not himself especially shunned appearing intrusive and indeed rather avoided the society of men then courted it so that after he had fought a duel with a baronette the son of a shoemaker who called him one clifford and had exhibited a flea-bitten horse allowed to be the finest in bath he rose insensibly into a certain degree of respect with the one sex as well as popularity with the other but what always attracted and kept a live suspicion was his intimacy with so peculiar and dashing a gentleman as mr edward pepper people could get over a certain frankness and clifford's address but the most lenient were astounded by the swagger of long net clifford however not insensible to the ridicule attached to his acquaintances soon managed to pursue his occupations alone nay he took a lodging to himself and left long net and augustus tomlinson the latter to operate as a check on the former to the quiet enjoyment of the hairdresser's apartments he himself attended all public gayities and his mean and the appearance of wealth which he maintained procured him access into several private circles which pretended to be exclusive as if people who had daughters ever could be exclusive many were the kind looks nor few the inviting letters which he received and if his sole object had been to mary and eras he would have found no difficulty in attaining it but he devoted himself entirely to lucie brandon and to win one glance from her he would have announced all the heiresses in the kingdom most fortunately for him a lover whose health was easily deranged had fallen ill the very day william brandon left bat and his lordship was thus rendered unable to watch the movements of lucie and undermine or totally prevent the success of her lover miss brandon indeed had at first melted by the kindness of her uncle and struck with the sense of his admonition for she was no self-willed young lady who was determined to be in love received captain clifford's advances with a coldness which from her manner the first evening they had met at bat occasioned him no less surprised than mortification he retreated and recoiled on the squire who patient and bold as usual was sequestered in his favorite corner by accident clifford trod on the squires gouty digital and in apologizing for the offense was so struck by the old gentleman's good nature and peculiarity of expressing himself that without knowing who he was he entered into conversation with him there was an offhand sort of liveliness and candor not to say wit about clifford which always had a charm for the elderly who generally like frankness above all the cardinal virtues the squire was exceedingly pleased with him the acquaintance once begun was naturally continued without difficulty when clifford ascertained who was his new friend and next morning meeting in the pump room this squire asked clifford to dinner the entree to the house thus gained the rest was easy long before my lover recovered his health the mischief affected by his rival was almost beyond redress and the heart of the pure the simple the affectionate lucy brandon was more than half lost to the lawless and vagrant cavalier who officiates as the hero of this tale one morning clifford in august is drilled out together let us said the latter who was in a melancholy mood leave the busy streets and indulge in a philosophical conversation on the nature of man while we are enjoying a little fresh air in the country clifford ascended to the proposal and the pair slowly sauntered up one of the hills that surround the city of blood dead there are certain moments said tomlinson looking pensively down at his cursey mere gators when we are like the fox in the nursery rhyme the fox had a wound he could not tell where we feel extremely unhappy and we cannot tell why a dark and sad melancholy grows over us we shun the face of man we wrap ourselves in our thoughts like silkworms we mutter fag ins of dismal songs tears come into our eyes we recall all the misfortunes that have ever happened to us we stoop in our gait and bury our hands in our breeches pockets we say what is life a stone to be shied into a horse pond we pine for some congenial heart and have an itching desire to talk prodigiously about ourselves all other subjects seem weary stale and unprofitable we feel as if a fly could knock us down and are in a humor to fall in love and make a very sad piece of business of it yet with all this weakness we have these moments of finer opinion of ourselves than we ever had before we call our migraines the melancholy of a sublime soul the yearnings of indigestion we denominate yearnings after immortality may sometimes a proof of the nature of the soul may i find some biographer who understands such sensations well and may he style those melting emotions the offspring of the poetical character which in reality are the offspring of a mutton chop you just pleasantly enough on your low spirit so Clifford but i have a cause for mine but then quite Tomlinson so much the easier is it to cure them the mind can cure the evils that spring from the mind it is only a fool and a quack and a dribbler when it professes to heal the evils that spring from the body my blue devils spring from the body consequently my mind which as you know is a particularly wise mind wrestles not against them tell me frankly renewed augustus after your pause do you ever repent do you ever think if you had been a shop boy without white apron about your middle that you would have been a happier and a better member of society than you now are repent say Clifford fiercely and his answer opened more of his secret heart its motives its reasonings and its peculiarities then we're often discernible repent that is the idlest word in our language no the moment i repent that moment i reform never can it seem to me an atonement for crime merely to regret it my mind would lead me not to regret but to repair repent no not yet the older i grow the more i see of men and of the callings of social life the more i an open knave sicken at the glossed and covert dishonesties around i acknowledge no allegiance to society for my birth to this hour i have received no single favor from its customs or its laws openly i war against it and patiently will i meet its revenge this may be crime but it looks like in my eyes when i gaze around and survey on all sides the mass creators who acknowledge large deaths to society who profess to obey its laws adore its institutions and above all oh how righteously attack all those who attack it and who yet lie and cheat and defraud and speculate publicly reaping all the comforts privately filtering all the profits repent of what i come into the world friendless and poor i find a body of laws hostile to the friendless and the poor to those laws hostile to me then i acknowledge hostility in my turn between us are the conditions of war let them expose a weakness i insist on my right to seize the advantage let them defeat me and i allow their right to destroy the author need not he hopes observe that these sentiments are mr paul clifford's not his passion said augustus cooley is the usual enemy of reason in your case it is the friend the pair had now gained the summit of a hill which commanded a view of the city below here augustus who was a little short-winded paused to recover breath as soon as he had done so he pointed with his forefinger to the scene beneath and said enthusiastically what a subject for contemplation clifford was about to reply when suddenly the sound of laughter and voices was heard behind let us fly cried augustus on this day of spleen man delights me not or woman either stay say clifford in a trembling accent from among those voices he recognized one which had already acquired over him an irresistible and bewitching power augustus side and reluctantly remained motionless presently a winding in the road brought into view a party of pleasure some on foot some on horseback others in the little vehicles which even at that day haunted watering places and call themselves flies or swallows but among the gate for a session clifford had only eyes for one walking without the elastic step which so rarely survives the first epic of youth by the side of the heavy chair in which her father was drawn the fair beauty of lucy brandon through at least in the eyes of her lover a magic and a luster over the whole group he stood for a moment stealing the heart that leaped at her bright looks and the gladness of her innocent laugh and then recovering himself he walked slowly and with a certain consciousness of the effect of his own singularly handsome person towards the party the good square received him with his usual kindness and informed him according to that lucidus ordo which he so especially favored of the whole particulars of their excursion there was something worthy of an artist's sketch in the scene at that moment the old squire in his chair with his benevolent face turned towards clifford and his hands resting on his cane clifford himself bowing down his stately head to hear the details of the father the beautiful daughter on the other side of the chair her laugh suddenly stilled her gait insensibly more composed and blush chasing blush over the smooth and peach like loveliness of her cheek the party of all sizes ages and attire affording ample scope for the caricatures and the pensive figure of augustus tomlinson who by the back was exceedingly like listen standing apart from the rest on the brow of the hill where clifford had left him and moralizing on the motley procession with one hand hid in his waistcoat and the other caressing his chin which slowly and pendulously with the rest of his head moved up and down as the party approached the brow of the hill the view of the city below was so striking that there was a general pause for the purpose of survey one young lady in particular drew for her pencil and began sketching while her mama looked complacently on and abstractedly devoured a sandwich it was at this time in the general pause that clifford and lucy found themselves heaven knows how next to each other and at a sufficient distance from the squire and the rest of the party to feel in some measure alone there was a silence in both which neither dared to break when lucy after looking at and toying with a flower that she had brought from the place which the party had been to see accidentally dropped it and clifford and herself stooping at the same moment to recover it their hands met involuntarily clifford detained the soft fingers in his own his eyes that encountered hers so spellbound and arrested them that for once they did not sink beneath his gaze his lips moved but many and vehement emotions so suffocated his voice that no sound escaped them but all the heart was in the eyes of each that moment fixed their destinies henceforth there was an error from which they dated a new existence a nucleus around which their thoughts their remembrances and their passions clung the great gulf was passed they stood on the same shore and felt that though still apart and disunited on that shore was no living creature but themselves meanwhile augustus tomlinson on finding himself surrounded by persons eager to gaze and to listen broke from his moodiness and reserve looking full at his next neighbor and flourishing his right hand in the air till he suffered it to rest in the direction of the houses and chimneys below he repeated that moral exclamation which had been wasted on clifford with a more solemn and a less passionate gravity than before what a subject man for contemplation very sensibly said indeed sir said the lady addressed he was rather of a serious term i never resumed augustus in a lot of key and looking around for auditors i never see a great town from the top of a hill without thinking of an apothecary shop lord sir said the lady tomlinson's end was gained struck with the quaintness of the notion a little crowd gathered instantly around him to hear it further developed of an apothecary shop man repeated tomlinson there lie your symbols and your purges and your cordials and your poisons all things to heal and to strengthen and to destroy there are drugs enough in that collection to save you to cure you all but none of you know how to use them nor what medicines to ask for nor what portions to take so that the greater part of you swallow a wrong dose and die of the remedy but if the town be the apothecary shop what in the plan of your idea stands for the apothecary asked an old gentleman who perceived it what tomlinson was driving the apothecary sir answered augustus stealing his notion from clifford and sinking his voice lest the true proprietor should overhear him clifford was otherwise employed the apothecary sir is the law it is the law that stands behind the counter and dispenses to each man the dose he should take to the poor it gives bad drugs gratuitously to the rich pills to stimulate the appetite to the latter premiums for luxury to the former only speedy refuges from life alas either your apothecary is but an ignorant quack or his science itself is but in its cradle he blunders as much as you would do if left to your own selection those who have recourse to him seldom speak gratefully of his skill he relieves you it is true but of your money not your malady and the only branch of his profession in which he is an adept is that which enables him to bleed you oh mankind continued augustus what noble creatures you ought to be you have keys to all sciences all arts all mysteries but one you have not a notion how you ought to be governed you cannot frame a tolerable law for the life and soul of you you make yourselves as uncomfortable as you can by all sorts of galling and vexatious institutions and you throw the blame upon fate you lay down rules it is impossible to comprehend much less to obey and you call each other monsters because you cannot conquer the impossibility you invent all sorts of vices under pretense of making laws for preserving virtue and the anomalous artificialities of conduct yourselves produce you say you are born with you make a machine by the perversist art you can think of and you call it with a sigh human nature with a host of good dispositions struggling at your breasts you insist upon libeling the almighty and declaring that he meant you to be wicked may you even call the man mischievous and seditious who begs and implores you to be one job better than you are oh mankind you are like a nosegay bought at covet garden the flowers are lovely the scent delicious mark that glorious hue contemplate that bursting petal how beautiful how relevant of health of nature of the dew and breath and blessing of heaven are you all but as for the dirty piece of string that ties you together one would think you had picked it out of the canal so saying tomlinson turned on his heel broke away from the crowd and solemnly descended the hill the party of pleasure slowly followed and cliford receiving an invitation from the squire to partake of his family dinner walked by the side of lucy and felt as if his spirit were drunk with the airs of eden a brother squire who among the gayities of bath was almost as forlorn as joseph brandon himself partook of the lord of warlocks hospitality when the three gentlemen adjourned to the drawing room the two elders sat down to a game at backgammon and cliford was left to the undisturbed enjoyment of lucy's conversation she was sitting by the window when cliford joined her on the table by her side were scattered books the charm of which they were chiefly poetry she had only of late learned to discover there also were strewn various little masterpieces of female ingenuity in which the fairy fingers of lucy brandon were especially formed to excel the shades of evening were rapidly darkening over the empty streets and in the sky which was cloudless and transparently clear the stars came gradually out one by one until as water does a sponge so their soft light filled the void hollow universal air beautiful evening if we as well as augustus tomlinson may indulge in an apostrophe beautiful evening for the all poets have had a song and surrounded thee with rills and waterfalls and do's and flowers and sheep and bats and melancholy and owls yet we must confess that to us who in this very sentimental age are a bustling worldly hard-minded person jostling our neighbors and thinking of the main chance to us thou art never so charming as when we meet thee walking in thy grey hood through the emptying streets and among the dying sounds of a city we love to feel the stillness where all two hours back was clamor we love to see the dingy abodes of trade and luxury those restless patients of earth's constant fever contrasted and canopied by heaven full of purity and quietness and peace we love to fill our thought with speculations on man even though the man be the muffin man rather than with inanimate objects hills and streams things to dream about not to meditate on man is the subject of far nobler contemplation a far more glowing hope of a far pure and loftier being of sentiment than all the floods and fells in the universe and that sweet evening is one reason why we like that the earnest and tender thoughts that excite us within us should be rather surrounded by the labors and tokens of our species than by sheep and bats and melancholy and owls but whether most blessed evening thou delightest us in the country or in the town thou equally disposes us to make and to feel love though art the cause of more marriages and more divorces than any other time in the 24 hours eyes that were common eyes to us before touched by that enchanting and magic shadows become inspired and preach to us of heaven a softness settles on features that were harsh to us while the sun shone a mellow light of love reposes on the complexion which by day we would have steeped four fathom five in a sea of mrs gallant's lotion what then thou modest hypocrite to those who already and deeply love what then of danger and of paradise does thou bring silent and stilling the breath which heaved in both quick and fitfully lucy and clifford sat together the streets were utterly deserted and the loneliness as they looked below made them feel the more intensely not only the emotions which swelled within them but the undefined and electric sympathy which in uniting them divided them from the world the quiet around was broken by a distant strain of rude music and as it came near two forms of no poetical order grew visible the one was a poor blind man who was drawing from his flute tones in which the melancholy beauty of the air compensated for any deficiency the deficiency was but slight in the execution a woman much younger than the musician and with something of beauty in her countenance accompanied him holding a touted hat and looking wistfully up at the windows of the silent street we said two forms we did the injustice of forgetfulness to another a rugged and simple friend it is true but one that both menstrual and wife had many and moving reasons to love this was a little wiry terrier with dark piercing eyes that glanced quickly and sagaciously in all quarters from beneath the shaggy covert that surrounded them slowly the animal moved onward pulling gently against the string by which he was held and by which he guided his master once his fidelity was tempted another dog invited him to play the poor terrier looked anxiously and doubtingly round and then uttering a log route of denial pursued the noiseless tenor of his way the little procession stopped beneath the window where Lucy and Clifford sat for the quick eye of the woman had perceived them and she later hand on the blind man's arm and whispered him he took the hint and changed his air into one of love Clifford glanced at Lucy her cheek was dyed in blushes the air was over another succeeded it was of the same kind a third the burden was still unaltered and then Clifford threw into the street a piece of money and the dog wagged his abridged and dwarf tail and darting forward picked it up in his mouth and the woman she had a kind face patted the officious friend even before she thanked the donor and then she dropped the money with a cheering word or two into the blind man's pocket and the three wanderers moved slowly on presently they came to a place where the street had been mended and the stones lay scattered about here the woman no longer trusted to the dog's guidance but anxiously hastened to the musician and led him with evident tenderness and minute watchfulness over the rugged way when they had passed the danger the man stopped and before he released the hand which had guided him he pressed it gratefully and then both the husband and the wife stooped down and caressed the dog this little scene one of those rough copies of the loveliness of human affections of which so many are scattered about the highways of the world both the levers had involuntarily watched and now as they withdrew their eyes those eyes settled on each other lucy's swam in tears to be loved and tended by the one I love said Clifford in a low voice I would walk blind and barefoot over the whole earth lucy sighed very gently and placing her pretty hands the one clasped over the other upon her knee looked down wistfully on them but made no answer Clifford drew his chair nearer and gazed on her as she sat the long dark eyelashes drooping over her eyes and contrasting the ivory lids her delicate profile half turned from him and borrowing a more touching beauty from the soft light that dwelt upon it and her full yet still scarcely developed bosom heaving at thoughts which he did not analyze but was content to feel it once big and delicious he gazed and his lips trembled he longed to speak he longed to say but those words which convey what volumes have endeavored to express and have only weakened by detail I love how he resisted the yearnings of his heart we know not but he did resist and lucy after a confused and embarrassed pause took up one of the palms on the table and asked him some questions about a particular passage in an old ballad which he had once pointed to her notice the passage related to a bordered chief one of the armstrongs of old who having been seized by the english and condemned to death vented his last feelings in a passionate address to his own home his rude tower and his newly wedded bride do you believe said lucy as their conversation began to flow that one so lawless and eager for bloodshed and strife as this robber is described to be could be so capable of soft defection I do say Clifford because he was not sensible that he was as criminal as you esteem him if a man cherished the idea that his actions are not evil he will retain at his heart all this better and gentler sensations as much as if he had never sinned the savage murders his enemy and when he returns home is not the less devoted to his friend or the less anxious for his children to harden and in brute the kindly dispositions we must not only indulge in guilt but feel that we are guilty oh many that the world load with their opprobium are capable of acts may have committed acts which in others the world would reverence and adore would you know whether a man's heart be shut to the power of love ask where he is not to his foes but to his friends crime to continue Clifford speaking fast and vehemently while his eyes flashed and the dark blood rushed to his cheek crime what is crime men embody their worst prejudices their most evil passions in a heterogeneous and contradictory code and whatever breaks this code they term a crime when they make no distinction in the penalty that is to say in the estimation awarded both to murder and to a petty theft imposed on the weak will by famine we ask nothing else to convince us that they are ignorant of the very nature of guilt and that they make up in ferocity for the want of wisdom lucy looked in alarm at the animated and fiery countenance of the speaker Clifford recovered himself after a moment's pause and rose from his seat with the gay and frank life which made one of his peculiar characteristics there was a singularity in politics miss brandon said he which i dare say you have often observed namely that those who are least important are always most noisy and that the chief people who lose their temper are those who have nothing to gain in return and of chapter 18 part one