Paul Clifford

uld desire. He was, of course, a member of the clubs, etc. He was, in short, of that oft-described set before whom all minor beaux sink into i

instance of conversational powers worthy the envious emulation of all great metaphysicians and arguers) - by the soul of that illustrious man, it is amazing to us what a number of truths there are broken up into little fragments, and scattered here and there through the world. What a magnifice

an object of respect in the eyes of the manoeuvring mammas of the vicinity of Thames Court. Many were the parties of pleasure to Deptford and Greenwich which Paul found himself compelled to attend; and we need not refer our readers to novels upon fashionable life to inform them that in good so

, these fine people were always in an agony to seem finer than they were; and the more airs a gentleman or a lady gave him or her self, the more important they became. Joe, the dog's-meat man, had indeed got into society entirely from a knack of saying impertinent things to e

ason is obvious: persons who have the power to bestow on another an advantage he covets would rather sell it than give it; and Paul, gradually increasing in popularity and ton, found himself, in spite of his classical education, no match for the finished, or, rather, finishing gentlemen with whom he began to associate. His first admittance into the select co

helorship - for single men always arrive at the apex of haut ton more easily than married - he became the very glass of fashion; and many were the tight apprentices, even at the west end of the town, who used to turn back in admiration of Bachelor Bill, when of a Sunday afternoon he drove down his varment gig to his snug little box on the borders of Turnham Green. Bill's happiness was not, however, wholly without alloy. The ladies of pleasure are always so excessively angry when a man does not make love to them, that there is nothing they will not say against him; and the fair matrons in the vicinity of Fiddler's Row spread all manner of unfounded reports against poor Bachelor Bill. By degrees, however - for, as Tacitus has said, doubtless with a prophetic eye to Bachelor Bill, "the truth gains by delay,"- these reports began to die insensibly away; and Bill now waxing near to the confines of middle age, his friends comfortably settled for him that he would be Bachelor Bill all his life. For the rest, he was an excellent fellow - gave his broken victuals t

on Monday next, and hops Mr. Paul Lobkins will be of t

civility. The good Bachelor had no notion, as he expressed it, of such tantrums, and he caused it to be circulated among the finest of the blowens, that he expected all who kicked their heels at his house would behave decent and polite to young Mrs. Dot

ely upon their own brains, and the personals of other people. To say truth, Paul, who at that time was an honest lad, was less charmed than he had anticipated by the conversation of these chevaliers of industry. He was more pleased with the clever though self-sufficient remarks of a gentleman with a remarkably fine head of hair, and whom we would more im

they conversed together so amicably that Paul, in the hospitality of

air of a dandy about to be impertinent; "ah, the name of a ch

g, "Mrs. Lobkins has no more religion than her betters; but the Mug i

n adventure together; to tell you the truth, it was not the sort of thing I would do now. But - would you believe it, Mr. Paul? - this pitiful fellow was quite rude to me the only time I ever

ummie is the last man to be rude; he

t his amiable qualities in the least. Pass the b

the table. "Suppose we adjourn to Fish Lane, an

y, consisting of Harry Finish, Allfair, Long Ned, and Mr. Hookey, adjourned to Fish Lane, where there was a club, celebrated among men who live by their wits, at which "lu

"a parson," said Dummie, "of wery dangerous morals, and not by no manner of means a fit 'sociate for a young gemman of cracter like leetle Paul!" So earnest was this caution, and so especially pointed at Long Ned - although the company of Mr. Allfair or Mr. Finish might be said to be no less prejudicial - that it is probable that stately fastidiousness of manner which Lord Normanby rightly observes, in one of his excellent novels, makes so many enemies in the world, and which sometimes characterized the behaviour of Long Ned, especially towards the men of commerce, was a main reason why Dummie was so acutely and peculiarly alive to the immoralities of that lengthy gent

mperament of the romantic Paul, her manner of venting her maternal reproaches was certainly not a little revolting to a lad of some delicacy of feeling. Indeed, it often occurred to him to leave her house altogether, and seek his fortunes alone, after the manner of the ingenious Gil Blas or the enterprising Roderick Random; and this idea, though conquered and reconquered, gradually swelled and increased at his heart, even as swelleth that hairy ball fo

iverted by an unexpected turn, and the crude thoughts of boyhood to bu

of Paul occasioned her as much scorn as compassion; and when for the third time within a week he stood, with a rueful visage an

spoke a huge pair of tin spectacles - "if so be as how you goes for to think as how I shall go for to supply you

naker lent me three crowns. It ill becomes your heir appa

th him! And as for Durnmie Dunnaker, I wonders how you, brought up such a swell, and blest with the wery best of hedications, can think of putting up with such wulgar 'sociates. I tells you what, Pa

r, and not constantly smooth in speech. It is true that his heart smote him afterwards, whenever he had said anything to annoy Mrs. Lobkins, and he was always the first to seek a reconciliation; but warm words produce cold respect, and sorrow for the past is not alw

f like a gentleman; and as you won't give it me, I am determined, with many th

that nothing so enrages persons on whom one depends as any expressed determination of seeking independence.) Gazing therefore for one moment at the o

usand! Take that and be d - d to you!" and, suiting the action to the word, the tube which she had withdrawn from her mouth in order to utter her gentle rebuke whizzed throug

tor of the affront he had received, stirred his blood into a deeper anger and a more bitter self-humiliation. All his former resolutions of departure, all the hard words, the coarse allusions, t

ering eye his parting look, and saw him turn so passively and mutely to the door, her heart misgave her, she raised herself from her chair, and made towards him. Unhappily for her chance of reconciliation, she had that day quaffed more copiously of the bowl than usual;

e. "Get in with you, and say no more on the matter; be a

ded not this

o longer," said he, sullenly. "Good-by; and if

nseemly return to her proffered kindness, hallooed after him, and bade that

ot whither, with his head in the air, and his legs marshalling themselves into a military gait of defiance. He had

ho are acquainted with ladies of a choleric temperament; when Mrs. Lobkins, turning round after Paul's departure, and seeing the pitiful person of that Dummie Dunnaker, whose name she remembered Paul had mentioned in his op

emen similarly circumstanced with regard to the ways of life - and giving him

crowns, will you, when you knows as how you told me you could not pay me a pitiful tizzy? Oh, you're a queer one, I warrants; but you won't queer Margery Lobkins. Out of my ken, you cur of the mange! - out of my ken; and if ever I c

ouse of the Mug; and the landlady thereof, tottering back to her elbow-chair, sought out another pipe, and, like all imagin

replied with equal tartness. Words grew high, and at length Paul, desirous of concluding the conference, clenched his fist, and told the redoubted Dummie that he would "knock him down." There is something peculiarly harsh and stunning in those three hard, wiry, sturdy, stubborn monosyllables. Their very sound makes you double your fist if you are a hero, or your pace if

ou on his knee mony's a time and oft! Vy, the cove's 'art is as 'ard as junk, and as proud as a g

t you, and there's an end of it; and I am very sorry for

eetle Paul?" said Dummie, grasp

ered our hero; "but I think I

n't blab, I'll tell you a bit of a secret. I heered as 'ow Long Ned starte

"then hang me if

e world) to perceive that a person, however admirable may be his qualities, does not readily find a welcome without a penny in his pocket. In the neighbourhood of Thames Court he had, indeed, many acquaintances; but the fineness of his language, acquired from his education, and the elegance of his air, in which he attempted to blend in happy association the gallant effrontery of Mr. Long Ned with the graceful negligence of Mr. Augustus Tomlinson, had made him many enemies among those acquaintances; and he was not willing - so great was our hero's pride - to throw himself on the chance of their welc

ks down in the chops; chee

not lessen the cloud upon Paul's brow, the acute Dummie Dunnaker proceeded

MacGrawler; and he resolved forthwith to repair to the abode of that illustrious sage, and petition at least for accommodation for the approaching night. So soon as he had come to this determination, he shook off the grasp of the amiable Dummie, and refusing with many thanks his hospitable invitation, requested him to abstract from the dame's hou

ixpence, as well as the freedom of the dame's cellar and larder; and as, in the reaction of feeling, and the perverse course of human affairs, people generally repent the most of those actions once the most ardently incurred, so poor Mrs. Lobkins, imagining that Paul's irregularities were entirely owing to the knowledge he had acquired from MacGrawler's instructions, grievously upbraided herself for her former folly in seeking for a s

y, though Paul was a poet, he was not much of a sentimentalist; and he has never given us the edifying ravings of his remorse on those subjects. But MacGrawler, like Dunnaker, was resolved that our hero should perceive the curse of his fatality; and as he still retained some influence over the mind of his quondam pupil, his accusations against Paul, as the origin of his banishment, were attended with a greater success than were the complaints of Dummie Dunnaker on a similar calamity. Paul, who, like most people who are good for nothing, had an

those lightning flashes of thought which often illumine the profoundest abyss of affliction darted across his mind. Recalling the i

t, and stopping short in the street -

n, it appeared to him that he had discovered the mines of Potosi. Burning with impatience to discuss with the great MacGrawler the feasibility of his project, he quickened h