Paul Clifford by Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Author:Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141932941
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2009-12-08T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter XX

Whackum: Look you there, now! Well, all Europe cannot show a knot of finer wits and braver gentlemen.

Dingboy: Faith, they are pretty smart men.

Shadwell’s Scourers

The world of Bath was of a sudden delighted by the intelligence that Lord Mauleverer had gone to Beauvale (the beautiful seat possessed by that nobleman in the neighbourhood of Bath), with the intention of there holding a series of sumptuous entertainments.

The first persons to whom the gay earl announced his ‘hospitable purpose’ were Mr and Miss Brandon; he called at their house, and declared his resolution of not leaving it till Lucy (who was in her own room) consented to gratify him with an interview, and a promise to be the queen of his purposed festival. Lucy, teased by her father, descended to the drawing-room spiritless and pale; and the earl, struck by the alteration of her appearance, took her hand, and made his inquiries with so interesting and feeling a semblance of kindness, as prepossessed the father, for the first time, in his favour, and touched even the daughter. So earnest, too, was his request that she would honour his festivities with her presence, and with so skilful a flattery was it conveyed, that the squire undertook to promise the favour in her name; and when the earl, declaring he was not contented with that promise from another, appealed to Lucy herself, her denial was soon melted into a positive, though a reluctant assent.

Delighted with his success, and more struck with Lucy’s loveliness, refined as it was by her paleness, than he had ever been before, Mauleverer left the house, and calculated, with greater accuracy than he had hitherto done, the probable fortune Lucy would derive from her uncle.

No sooner were the cards issued for Lord Mauleverer’s fête, than nothing else was talked of among the circles which, at Bath, people were pleased to term ‘the World.’

But, in the interim, caps are making, and talk flowing, at Bath; and when it was found that Lord Mauleverer – the good-natured Lord Mauleverer! – the obliging Lord Mauleverer! – was really going to be exclusive, and out of a thousand acquaintances to select only eight hundred, it is amazing how his popularity deepened into respect. Now, then, came anxiety and triumph; she who was asked turned her back upon her who was not, – old friendships dissolved, – Independence wrote letters for a ticket, – and, as England is the freest country in the world, all the Mistresses Hodges and Snodges begged to take the liberty of bringing their youngest daughters.

Leaving the enviable Mauleverer – the god-like occasion of so much happiness and woe, triumph and dejection, ascend with us, O reader, into those elegant apartments over the hair-dresser’s shop, tenanted by Mr Edward Pepper, and Mr Augustus Tomlinson: – the time was that of evening; Captain Clifford had been dining with his two friends; the cloth was removed, and conversation was flowing over a table graced by two bottles of port, a bowl of

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