And a spectacle it was! Mrs. Clifford, about to become Mrs.

Delaney, was determined that the change in her situation should

be distinguished by becoming eclat. Always a silly woman, fond of

extravagance and show, she prepared to celebrate an occasion of the

greatest folly in a style of greater extravagance than ever. She

accordingly collected as many of her former numerous acquaintances

as were still willing to appear within a circle in which wealth

was no longer to be found. Her house was small, but, as has been

elsewhere stated in this narrative, she had made it smaller by

stuffing it with the massive and costly furniture which had been

less out of place in her former splendid mansion, and had there much

better accorded with her fortunes. She now still further stuffed

it with her guests. Of course, many of those present, came only to

make merry at her expense.

Her husband was almost entirely unknown

to any of them; and it was enough to settle his pretensions in

every mind, that, in the vigor of his youth, a really fine-looking,

well-made person of twenty-five, he was about to connect himself,

in marriage, with a haggard old woman of fifty, whose personal

charms, never very great, were nearly all gone; and whose mind and

manners, the grace of youth being no more, were so very deficient

in all those qualities which might commend one to a husband. So

far as externals went, Mr. Delaney was a very proper man. He behaved

with sufficient decorum, and unexpected modesty; and went through

the ordeal as composedly as if the occurrence had been frequently

before familiar; as indeed we shall discover in the sequel, was

certainly the case. But this does not concern us now.

Three rooms were thrown open to the company. We had refreshments

in abundance and great variety, and at a certain hour, we were

astounded by the clamor of tamborine and fiddle giving due notice

to the dancers. Among my few social accomplishments, this of

dancing had never been included. Naturally, I should, perhaps, be

considered an awkward man. I was conscious of this awkwardness at

all times when not excited by action or some earnest motive. I was

incapable of that graceful loitering, that flexibleness of mind

and body, which excludes the idea of intensity, of every sort,

and which constitutes one of the great essentials for success in

a ball-room. It was in this very respect that my FRIEND, William

Edgerton, may be said to have excelled most young men of our acquaintance.

He was what, in common speech, is called an accomplished man. Of

very graceful person, without much earnestness of character, he

had acquired a certain fastidiousness of taste on the subjects of

costume and manners, which, without Brummellizing, he yet carried

to an extent which betrayed a considerable degree of mental feebleness.

This somewhat assimilated him to the fashionable dandy. He walked

with an air equally graceful, noble, and unaffected. He was never

on stilts, yet he was always EN REGLE. He had as little maurias,

honte as maurais ton. In short, whatever might have been his

deficiencies, he was confessedly a very neat specimen of the fine

gentleman in its most commendable social sense.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024