Rhoda Fleming -- Volume 2

d winter masts of the yachting squadron. The house was ruled, during the congregation of the Christmas guests, by charming Mrs. Lovell

te pleasanter to young men than to any other class, it will be admitt

hey were to expect, and racked mythology for spiteful comparisons; while Algernon vehemently defended her with a battering fire of British adjectives in superlative. He as much as hinted, under instigation, that he was entitled to defend her; and his claim being by-and-by yawningly allowed by Edward, and presuming that he now had Edward in his power and need not fear him, he exhibited his weakness in the guise

t her," was Ed

common," said Algernon, makin

stone," sa

u thin

retty i

quin p

sented to

st? This is fresh from Russia. There's a set I've my eye on. I shall complete it in time.

ndid opal,"

opals," sai

r meaning at onc

ed if I know what

the significatio

a b

Oriental when y

euce I

the prettiest wid

ll be right th

ow as jaundice, and put on the whiteness of a virgin when you ought to be blushing like a penitent.' In short, 'You have no heart of your own, and you pretend to posse

that, it'll be rather

Do opals me

e," was t

me up for every other woman living. She never lets me feel a fool with her; and she has a way, by Jove, of looking at me, and letting me know she's up to my thoughts and isn'

bserved Edward, emphatically

shall get Wrexby: there's no entail. I'm heir to the governor's temper and his g

how much the

gernon; "that is, I ne

to know how he ma

osition, and they speculate on my expectations. There is no harm in that if they like it. I look at their trinkets, and say

and bad

to get through the best years of his life-which I take to be his youth-without that squalid poverty bothering him. You can make presents,

lished an institution to correct

ound note, if-that is, if I hadn't happened to be dressed like a gentleman. With your prospects, Ned, I should propose to

ces on one side," said Ed

enty thousand a-year, if you have a penny; and you'll go into Parliament, and g

too like," E

ter chimed to it in boisterous shouts of anticipated careless jollity at Fairly Park, crying out how they would hunt and snap fingers at Jews, and all mortal sorrows, and have a fortnight, or three weeks, perhaps a full month, of the finest life pos

glected her disgracefully. His father, Sir William, was present at the table, and Lord Elling, with whom he was in repute as a talker and a wit. Quickened with his host's renowned good wine (and the bare renown of a wine is inspiriting), Edward pressed to be brilliant. He had an epigrammatic turn, and though his mind was prosaic when it ran alone, he could appear inventive and fanciful with the rub of other minds. Now, at a table where good talking is cared for, the triumphs of the excelling tongue are not for a moment to be despised, even by the huge appetite of the monster Vanity. For a year, Edward had abjured this feast. Before the birds appeared and the champagne had ceased to make its circle, he felt that he was now at home again, and that the term of his wandering away from society was one of folly. He felt the joy and vigour of a creature returned to his element. Why had he ever quitted it? Already he looked back upon Dahlia

r had himself become fascinated, but without utterly scouting it, until he found that the little lady whom he had led to dinner the first day, was an heiress; and from that, and other indications, he exactly divined the nature of his father's provident wishes. But this revelation rendered Mrs. Lovell's behaviour yet more extraordinary. Could it be credited that she was abetting Sir William's schemes with all her woman's craft? "Has she," thought Edward, "become so indifferent to me as to care for my welfare?" He determined to put her to the test. He made love to Adeline Gosling. Nothing that he did disturbed th

ch her tales about me. Say, I've got a lot in me, though I don't let it out. The ga

the light of his perception, tha

s of years, like that burdensome fair face in the London lodging-house, to which the Fates had terribly attached themselves. So, he was gay. He closed, as it were, a black volume, and opened a new and a bright one. Young men easily fancy that they may do this, and that when the black volume is

creak. There is no after-dinner bill. You are waited on, without being elbowed by the humanity of your attendants. It is a civilized Arcadia. Only, do not desire, that you may not envy. Accept humbly what rights of citizenship are accorded to you upon entering

ld enter the library, without encountering the scorn of his elders; so he enjoyed the privilege of hearing

They took their wisdom for an experience of the past: they were but giving their sensations in the

at Fairly, Algernon came into Edwar

get out of it. I'll swear no creditor of mine knew I was leaving London. My belief is that the fellows who give credit have spies about at ever

rscription of the letter.

confounded bailiff, w

t generally de

ad it!" Alge

ter ran

ernon Bl

arning, you will have to answer his question with a Yes or a No; and speak from your con

ousin's eye down to the

hink of it?" h

n gloom. Mastering some black meditation in his b

and show you they are determined to belong to the social march i

this fellow co

t kno

insists on

know yo

it! if he catch

e him

he won'

ith your h

t's about a

ation, e

. You'll let me borrow your name, old Ned. I've stood by you in my time. As for

ndliness, and Algernon went off, v