But he was not
one of those men who consider marriage as an extinguisher of all those
feelings and accomplishments which throw a lustre on existence; and he
did not consider himself bound, because he had plighted his faith to
a beautiful woman, immediately to terminate the very conduct which had
induced her to join him in the sacred and eternal pledge. His gaiety
still sparkled, his wit still flashed; still he hastened to be foremost
among the courteous; and still his high and ready gallantry indicated
that he was not prepared to yield the fitting ornament of his still
blooming youth. A thousand unobtrusive and delicate attentions which
the innocent now received from him without a thought, save of Lady
Aphrodite's good fortune; a thousand gay and sentimental axioms, which
proved not only how agreeable he was, but how enchanting he must have
been; a thousand little deeds which struggled to shun the light, and
which palpably demonstrated that the gaiety of his wit, the splendour of
his accomplishments, and the tenderness of his soul were only equalled
by his unbounded generosity and unparalleled good temper; all these
combined had made Sir Lucius Grafton, to many, always a delightful,
often a dangerous, and sometimes a fatal, companion.
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