He was one of those
whose candour is deadly. It was when he least endeavoured to conceal his
character that its hideousness least appeared. He confessed sometimes
so much, that you yielded that pity which, ere the shrived culprit could
receive, by some fatal alchemy was changed into passion. His smile was a
lure, his speech was a spell; but it was when he was silent, and almost
gloomy, when you caught his serious eye, charged, as it were, with
emotion, gazing on yours, that if you had a guardian sylph you should
have invoked its aid; and we pray, if ever you meet the man of whom we
write, your invocation may not be forgotten, or be, what is more likely,
too late.
The Dacres, this season, were the subject of general conversation. She
was the distinguished beauty, and the dandies all agreed that his
dinner was worthy of his daughter. Lady Fitz-pompey was not behind the
welcoming crowd. She was too politic a leader not to feel anxious to
enlist under her colours a recruit who was so calculated to maintain the
reputation of her forces. Fitz-pompey House must not lose its character
for assembling the most distinguished, the most agreeable, and the most
refined, and May Dacre was a divinity who would summon many a crowd to
her niche in this Pantheon of fashion.
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