Rank and Talent; A Novel, Vol. 3 (of 3)Scargill, William Pitt
General
Rank and Talent; A Novel, Vol. 3 (of 3)
Scargill, William Pitt
England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
Our readers must have observed that we are in general tolerably candid.
But sometimes we do find ourselves glowing with an indignation not
easily expressed, and feeling a contempt, for the conveyance of which no
ordinary terms or allowed language will suffice. This contempt and this
indignation do we now feel for that most execrable fribble, for that most
attenuated shred of a dandikin, Henry Augustus Tippetson. Singleton
Sloper is a lazy, ignorant lob, and Dr. Crack is a conceited puppy; but
in neither of these two do we discern any thing at all equivalent in
moral turpitude to that effeminate, that more than unmanly, that almost
inhuman selfishness that disgraces, or rather constitutes, the character
of Tippetson. This young gentleman had learned by rote the common
places of polished society, and he played them off with a vile, cunning
dexterity on the simple Clara Rivolta, till she was almost deceived as to
his character. Her mind had been injured, though unintentionally, by the
trumpery sentimentality of Miss Henderson’s foolish correspondence. The
circumstances, also, of Mr. Martindale’s oddness of character, of Signora
Rivolta’s retired habits, and of the Colonel’s general indifference
to every thing, allowed to Clara but little opportunity of seeing or
learning the world and its moral elements.
Markham now but seldom paid his visits. When he did, he was sure to find
Tippetson there before him, or soon after he entered the house; and such
was the cunning and craftiness of that young fox, that, whenever Markham
was present, he contrived to pay such attentions as might corroborate
to his eye the report of an engagement, and yet such as Clara could not
pointedly or freezingly repel. To Markham, therefore, it seemed almost
demonstrated that there subsisted an implicit engagement or understanding
between the two; and as Markham saw in Tippetson nothing but the perfumed
fop, and was not aware of his dirty cunning, he began to fancy that he
had given Clara credit for more discernment than she possessed, when she
could tolerate and be pleased with the attentions of such an unfurnished
blockhead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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