Dacre to promote explanations.
Our hero felt annoyed at his own weakness. It would have been infinitely
more worthy of so celebrated, so unrivalled a personage as the Duke of
St. James not to have given the woman who had rejected him this evidence
of her power. According to etiquette, he should have called there daily
and have dined there weekly, and yet never have given the former object
of his adoration the slightest idea that he cared a breath for her
presence. According to etiquette, he should never have addressed her but
in a vein of persiflage, and with a smile which indicated his perfect
heartease and her bad taste. According to etiquette, he should have
flirted with every woman in her company, rode with her in the Park,
walked with her in the Gardens, chatted with her at the opera, and drunk
wine with her at a water party; and finally, to prove how sincere he
was in his former estimation of her judgment, have consulted her on the
presents which he should make to some intimate friend of hers, whom he
announces as his future bride. This is the way to manage a woman; and
the result may be conceived.
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