The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer — CompleteLever, Charles
General
The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer — Complete
Lever, Charles
Fiction
None of these, I believe, however good and valid reasons in themselves,
were the moving powers upon the present occasion; the all-sufficient
one being that Mrs. Bingham had a daughter. Now Miss Bingham was Dublin
too—but Dublin of a later edition—and a finer, more hot-pressed copy
than her mamma. She had been educated at Mrs. Somebody’s seminary in
Mountjoy-square—had been taught to dance by Montague—and had learned
French from a Swiss governess—with a number of similar advantages—a
very pretty figure—dark eyes—long eye-lashes and a dimple—and last, but
of course least, the deserved reputation of a large fortune. She had
made a most successful debut in the Dublin world, where she was much
admired and flattered, and which soon suggested to her quick mind, as
it has often done in similar cases to a young provincial debutante, not
to waste her “fraicheur” upon the minor theatres, but at once to appear
upon the “great boards;” so far evidencing a higher flight of
imagination and enterprise than is usually found among the clique of
her early associates, who may be characterized as that school of young
ladies, who like the “Corsair” and Dunleary, and say, “ah don’t!”
She possessed much more common sense than her mamma, and promised under
proper advantages to become speedily quite sufficiently acquainted with
the world and its habitudes. In the meanwhile, I perceived that she ran
a very considerable risque of being carried off by some mustachoed
Pole, with a name like a sneeze, who might pretend to enjoy the entree
into the fashionable circles of the continent.
Very little study of my two fair friends enabled me to see thus much;
and very little “usage” sufficed to render me speedily intimate with
both; the easy bonhommie of the mamma, who had a very methodistical
appreciation of what the “connexion” call “creature comforts,” amused
me much, and opened one ready path to her good graces by the
opportunity afforded of getting up a luncheon of veal cutlets and
London porter, of which I partook, not a little to the evident loss of
the fair daughter’s esteem.
While, therefore, I made the tour of the steward’s cell in search of
Harvey’s sauce, I brushed up my memory of the Corsair and Childe
Harold, and alternately discussed Stilton and Southey, Lover and
lobsters, Haynes Bayley and ham.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account