Mauleverer

“ After some time, when they were in a sequestered part of the grounds, Mauleverer, observing that none were near, entered a rude hut, and so fascinated was he at that moment by the beauty of his guest, and so meet to him seemed the opportunity of his confession, that he with difficulty suppressed the avowal rising to his lips, and took the more prudent plan of first sounding and preparing, as it were, the way. ”

“ With a face all smiles, but with a mien in which more dignity than he ordinarily assumed, was worn, Mauleverer now moved towards Lucy, who was leaning on her partner's arm. The Earl, who had ample tact where his consummate selfishness did not warp it, knew well how to act the lover, without running ridiculously into the folly of seeming to play the hoary dangler. ”

“ Thus while Mauleverer rather lived the dissolute life of a young nobleman, who prefers the company of agreeable demirips to that of wearisome Duchesses, than maintained the decorous state befitting a mature age, and an immense interest in the country,—he was quite as popular at Court, where he held a situation in the Household, as he was in the green-room, where he enchanted every actress on the right side of forty. ”

“ There appeared, as if in that respect there was a contest in his mind between interest on one hand, and private dislike, or contempt, on the other.
"You judge women wrongly!" said Brandon. "Ladies never know each other; of all persons, Mauleverer is best calculated to win them, and experience has proved my assertion. The proudest lot I know for a woman, would be the thorough conquest of Lord Mauleverer; but it is impossible. He may be gallant, but he will never be subdued. He defies the whole female world, and with justice and impunity. Enough of him. Sing to me, dear Lucy." ”

“ Anxious to learn if she had seen, or been addressed by, Clifford, the subtle Earl, as he led her to the gate, dwelt particularly on the intrusion of that person, and by the trembling of the hand which rested on his arm, he drew no delicious omen for his own hopes. "However," thought he, "the man goes to-morrow, and then the field will be clear; the girl's a child yet, and I forgive her folly." And with an air of chivalric veneration, Mauleverer bowed the object of his pardon into her carriage. ”

“ What slaves we are to the moment! As Mauleverer turned back to rejoin Lucy, who, agitated almost to fainting, leaned against the rude wall of the hut, he would as soon have thought of flying as of making that generous offer of self, &c. which the instant before he had been burning to render Lucy. The vain are always confoundedly jealous, and Mauleverer remembering Clifford, and Lucy's blushes in dancing with him, instantly accounted for her agitation and its cause. ”

“ Ah! if Tarquin had but known women as well as I do, he would have had no reason to be rough with Lucretia. 'Tis a thousand pities, that experience comes to us in women, as in the world, just when it begins to be no longer of use to us!"
As he made these moral reflections, Mauleverer gained the dancers, and beheld Lucy listening with downcast eyes, and cheeks that evidently blushed, to a young man, whom Mauleverer acknowledged at once to be one of the best-looking fellows he had ever seen. ”

“ Sir William Brandon's epistle found Mauleverer in a fitting mood for Lucy and for London. Our worthy peer had been not a little chagrined by Lucy's sudden departure from Bath; and while in doubt whether or not to follow her, the papers had informed him of the squire's death. Mauleverer, being then fully aware of the impossibility of immediately urging his suit, endeavoured, like the true philosopher he was, to reconcile himself to his hope deferred. Few people were more easily susceptible of consolation than Lord Mauleverer. ”

“ Drawing rather an erroneous omen from the smile, Mauleverer rapturously continued, still detaining the hand which Lucy endeavoured to extricate,
"Yes, enchanting Miss Brandon, I who have for so many years boasted of my invulnerable heart, am subdued at last. I have long, very long, struggled against my attachment to you. Alas! it is in vain; and you behold me now utterly at your mercy. Make me the most miserable of men, or the most enviable. ”

“ Mauleverer drew himself up. "My dear diamonds and my pretty purse!" thought he; "I may save you yet!"
"Have you been long plagued with the fellows?" he asked, after a pause, as he was paying his bill.
"Why, my lord, we have and we have not. I fancy as how they have a sort of a haunt near Reading, for sometimes they are intolerable just about there, and sometimes they are quiet for months together! For instance, my lord, we thought them all gone some time ago; but lately they have regularly stopped every one, though I hear as how they have cleared no great booty as yet." ”

“ Let us picture to ourselves his shattered health, the languor of sickness heightening the gloom which makes the very air of a jail; his certainty of the doom to be passed against him; his knowledge that the uncle of Lucy Brandon was to be his judge, that Mauleverer was to be his accuser, and that in all human probability the only woman he had ever loved must sooner or later learn the criminality of his life and the ignominy of his death ”

“ Delighted with his success, and more struck with Lucy's loveliness, refined as it was by her paleness, than he had ever been before, Mauleverer left the house, and calculated, with greater accuracy than he had hitherto done, the probable fortune Lucy would derive from her uncle. ”

“ Lucy raised her eyes, and something of her natural archness played in their expression.
"I believe, my Lord," said she, moving from the hut, "that it would be better to join your guests: walls have ears; and what would be the gay Lord Mauleverer's self-reproach, if he heard again of his fine compliments to——"
"The most charming person in Europe!" cried Mauleverer vehemently, and the hand which he before touched, he now clasped; at that instant Lucy saw opposite to her, half hid by a copse of evergreens, the figure of Clifford. ”

“ Brandon sat speechless, eyeing the mortified face of the courtier, with a malicious complacency, and there was a pause of several minutes. Sir William then mastering the strange feeling which made him always rejoice in whatever threw ridicule on his friend, approached, laid his hand kindly on Mauleverer's shoulder, and talked to him of comfort and of encouragement. The reader will believe, that Mauleverer was not a man whom it was impossible to encourage. ”

“ He paid his compliments, and in paying them declared that he must leave it to his friend, Sir William, to explain all the danger he had dared, for the sake of satisfying himself that Miss Brandon was no less lovely than when he had last beheld her.
"Yes, indeed," said Brandon, with a scarcely perceptible sneer, "Lord Mauleverer has literally endured the moving accidents of flood and field,—for he was nearly exterminated by a highwayman, and all but drowned in a ditch!"
"Commend me to a friend for setting one off to the best advantage," said Mauleverer, gayly. ”

“ As Mauleverer, though complaisant—like most men of unmistakeable rank—to all his acquaintances, whatever might be their grade,—possessed but very few friends intimate enough to enter his sick-chamber, and none of that few were at Bath; it will readily be perceived that he was in blissful ignorance of the growing fortunes of his rival; and to say the exact truth, illness, which makes a man's thoughts turn very much upon himself, banished many of the most tender ideas usually floating in his mind around the image of Lucy Brandon. ”

“ But at this time a variety of feelings not ordinarily eloquent in the outward man struggled in his dark face, expressive of all the energy and passion of his powerful and masculine nature; there seemed to speak from his features and eyes something of shame and anger and triumph and regret and scorn. All these various emotions, which it appears almost a paradox to assert met in the same expression, nevertheless were so individually and almost fearfully stamped as to convey at once their signification to the mind of Mauleverer. ”

“ Catching only the last words,—for besides the awful complexity of the Squire's sentences, Mauleverer was slightly afflicted by the aristocratic complaint of deafness—the Earl answered with a smile.
"The complaint of shooting!—very good indeed, Mr. Brandon; it is seldom that I have heard so witty a phrase. No, I am not in the least troubled with that epidemic. It is a disorder very prevalent in this county."
"My Lord!" said the Squire, rather puzzled—and then observing that Mauleverer did not continue, he thought it expedient to start another subject. ”

“ Mauleverer was esteemed a man of the most punctilious honour in private life, and he would not have been seen in the act of listening to other people's conversation for the world.
Hemming with an air and resettling himself as Clifford approached, the Squire thus skilfully commenced the attack; "Ah, ha! my good Captain Clifford, and how do you do? I saw you— (and I am very glad, my friend, as every one else is to see you.) —at a distance. And where have you left my daughter?"
"Miss Brandon is dancing with Mr. Muskwell, Sir," answered Clifford. ”

“ The shock staggered him for a moment; and a second shot from the hands of Mauleverer would have probably finished his earthly career, had not the third robber, who had hitherto remained almost inactive, thrown himself from his horse, which, tutored to such docility, remained perfectly still, and advancing with a bold step and a levelled pistol towards Mauleverer and his servant, said in a resolute voice, “Gentlemen, it is useless to struggle; we are well armed, and resolved on effecting our purpose. ”

“ I have decided on my change of life," said the lawyer, with a slight sigh.
"So have I on my change of opinion," chimed in the Earl. "I will tell you what opinions seem to me like."
"What?" said Brandon abstractedly.
"Trees!" answered Mauleverer, quaintly; "if they can be made serviceable by standing, don't part with a stick; but when they are of that growth that sells well, or whenever they shut out a fine prospect, cut them down, and pack them off by all manner of means!—And now for the second course." ”

“ Make me the most miserable of men or the most enviable. Enchantress, speak!”
“Really, my lord,” said Lucy, hesitating, yet rising, and freeing herself from his hand, “I feel it difficult to suppose you serious; and perhaps this is merely a gallantry to me by way of practice on others.”
“Sweet Lucy, if I may so call you,” answered Mauleverer, with an ardent gaze, “do not, I implore you, even for a moment, affect to mistake me! Do not for a moment jest at what, to me, is the bane or bliss of life! Dare I hope that my hand and heart, which I now offer you, are not deserving of your derision?” ”

“ John Mauleverer, who was a noted goldsmith of London, supplied the plate for the occasion."
"Fairly retorted," said Mauleverer, smiling; for though the Earl had a great contempt for low birth, set on high places, in other men, he was utterly void of pride for his own family.—"Fairly retorted! but I never meant any thing else but a laugh at your brother's housekeeping; a joke, surely, permitted to a man whose own fastidiousness on these matters is so standing a jest. But, by heavens, Brandon, to turn from these subjects, your niece is the prettiest girl I have seen for twenty years ”

“ They say you promise to make more human pendulums than any of your brethren."
"They do say that, do they?" said Brandon. "Well, I own I have a bile against my species; I loathe their folly and their half vices. 'Ridet et odit'— ["He laughs and hates"] —is my motto; and I allow that it is not the philosophy that makes men merciful!"
"Well, Juvenal's wisdom be yours, mine be Horace's!" rejoined Mauleverer, as he picked his teeth; "but I am glad you see the absolute necessity of keeping this secret from Lucy's suspicion. She never reads the papers, I suppose? Girls never do!" ”

“ As soon as the earl had bowed and smiled, and shaken hands sufficiently to sustain his reputation, he sauntered towards the dancers in search of Lucy. He found her not only exactly in the same spot in which he had last beheld her, but dancing with exactly the same partner who had before provoked all the gallant nobleman's jealousy and wrath. Mauleverer, though not by any means addicted to preparing his compliments beforehand, had just been conning a delicate speech for Lucy; but no sooner did the person of her partner flash on him than the whole flattery vanished at once from his recollection. ”

“ Brandon dined alone with Mauleverer, having made the arrangement, that he, with the Earl, was to join his brother and niece at the ball. Mauleverer, who hated state, except on great occasions, when no man displayed it with a better grace, never suffered his servants to wait at dinner when he was alone, or with one of his peculiar friends. ”

“ Men, indeed, skilled like Mauleverer in the subtleties of manner, might perhaps have easily detected in him the want of that indescribable essence possessed only by persons reared in good society; but that want being shared by so many persons of indisputable birth and fortune, conveyed no particular reproach. To Lucy, indeed, brought up in seclusion, and seeing at Warlock none calculated to refine her taste in the fashion of an air or phrase to a very fastidious standard of perfection, this want was perfectly imperceptible ”

“ Time is never so cruel as when, while stealing from us the power to please, he leaves us in full vigour the unhappy privilege to be charmed!"
Mauleverer expected at least a blushing contradiction to the implied application of a sentiment so affectingly expressed; he was disappointed. Lucy, less alive than usual to the sentimental, or its reverse, scarcely perceived his meaning, and answered simply, "That it was very true." "This comes of being, like my friend Burke, too refined for one's audience," thought Mauleverer, wincing a little from the unexpected reply. "And yet!" ”