established. The novel passed speedily into the _tenth edition_! An
undoubted, and a very great sensation was produced; extracts descriptive
of the persons, particularly that of Titmouse, and the earl, and Lady
Cecilia, figuring in the story, were given in the London papers, and
thence transferred into those all over the country. The very author of
the book, Mr. Bladdery Pip, became a prodigious LION, and dressing
himself in the most elaborate and exquisite style, had his portrait,
looking most intensely intellectual, prefixed to the tenth edition. Then
came portraits of "Tittlebat Titmouse, Esq.," (for which he had never
sat,) giving him large melting eyes, a very pensive face, and a most
fashionable appearance. The Earl of Dreddlington and Lady Cecilia became
also a lion and lioness. Hundreds of opera-glasses were directed, at
once, to their opera-box; innumerable were the anxious salutations they
received as they drove round the Park--and round it they went three or
four times as often as they had ever done before. 'Twas whispered that
the king had read the book, and drank the earl's health, under the name
of Lord Frizzleton--while the queen did the same for Lady Cecilia as
Lady Sapphira. Their appearance produced a manifest sensation at both
the levee and drawing-room.--Majesty looked blander than usual as they
approached. Poor Lord Dreddlington, and Lady Cecilia, mounted in a trice
into the seventh heaven of rapturous excitement; for there was that
buoyant quality about their heads which secured them a graceful and
rapid upward motion. They were both unutterably _happy_; living in a
gentle delicious tumult of exalted feeling. Irrepressible exultation
glistened in the earl's eyes; he threw an infinite deal of blandness and
courtesy into his manners wherever he was, and whomsoever he addressed;
as if he could now easily afford it, confident in the inaccessible
sublimity of his position. It was slightly laughable to observe,
however, the desperate efforts he made to maintain his former frigid
composure of manner--but in vain; his nervousness looked almost like a
sudden, though gentle accession of St. Vitus's dance. Innumerable were
the inquiries after Titmouse--his person--his manners--his
character--his dress, made of Lady Cecilia by her friends. Young ladies
tormented her for his autograph. 'T was with her as if the level surface
of the Dead Sea had been stirred by the freshening breeze.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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