Godolphin, Volume 2.Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
General
Godolphin, Volume 2.
Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
tranquillity of a gentleman's dress; no panels, disdaining the armorial
attributes of which real dignity should neither be ashamed nor
proud--converted plain taste into a display of plainness. He seldom
appeared at races, and never hunted; though he was profound master of the
calculations in the first, and was, as regarded the second, allowed to be
one of the most perfect masters of horsemanship in his time. So, in his
chess, while he chose even sedulously what became him most, he avoided the
appearance of coxcombry, by a disregard to minutiae. He did not value
himself on the perfection of his boot; and suffered a wrinkle in his coat
without a sigh: yet, even the exquisites of the time allowed that no one
was more gentlemanlike in the tout ensemble; and while he sought by other
means than dress to attract, he never even in dress offended. Carefully
shunning the character of the professed wit, or the general talker, he was
yet piquant, shrewd, and animated to the few persons whom he addressed, or
with whom he associated: and though he had refused all offers to enter
public life, he was sufficiently master of the graver subjects that
agitated the times to impress even those practically engaged in them with
a belief in his information and his talents.
But he was born poor; and yet he had lived for nearly thirty years as a
rich man! What was his secret?--he had lived upon others. At all games
of science, he played with a masterly skill; and in those wherein luck
preponderates, there are always chances for a cool and systematic
calculation. He had been, indeed, suspected of unfair play; but the
charge had never cooled the eagerness with which he had been courted.
With far better taste, and in far higher estimation than Brummell, he
obtained an equal, though a more secret sway. Every one was desirious to
know him: without his acquaintance, the young debutant felt that he wanted
the qualification to social success: by his intimacy, even vulgarity
became the rage. It was true that, as no woman's disgrace was confessedly
traced to him, so neither was any man's ruin--save only in the doubtful
instance of the unfortunate Johnstone. He never won of any person,
however ardent, more than a certain portion of his fortune--the rest of
his undoing Saville left to his satellites; nay, even those who had in
reality most reason to complain of him, never perceived his due share in
their impoverishment. It was common enough to hear men say, "Ah! Saville,
I wish I had taken your advice, and left off while I had yet half my
fortune!" They did not accurately heed that the first half was Saville's;
because the first half had excited, not ruined them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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