A NOVEL. [By Lady Charlotte Bany] "Are not they in the actual practice of Guilt, who care not whether SECOND EDITION. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 1828. And Bil FLIRTATION. CHAPTER I. "It seems to be true, that no plenitude of present gratifications can make the possessor happy for a continuance, unless he have something in reserve-something to hope for and look forward to. This I conclude to be the case, from comparing the alacrity and spirits of men who are engaged in any pursuit which interests them, with the dejection and ennui of almost all who are either born to so much that they want nothing more, or who have used up their satisfactions too soon, and drained the sources of them." PALEY. "So, the old boy is off at last!" said lounging Lepel to Lord Mowbray, as he entered the room. "I give you joy, Mowbray, with all my heart :" (had he any ?) "I thought that the unconscionable fellow had taken an everlasting lease of life, and never would have the grace to part with it! Well, and so now you have nothing to do but to make the contents of his coffers fly; and enjoy yourself with all your friends: an enviable situation, truly! Nothing but amusement, and with your own set; delightful! Well, my dear Lord, always remember there is not one among the number more truly attached to you than myself." "Friends" and "attached"-these two words were curiously conned over by Lord Mowbray, who, besides feeling the terms in which Captain Lepel so flippantly spoke of his deceased relative, to be repugnant to him, was a nice appre ciator of real elegance, and contemned the fashionable slang, which confounds the true meaning of language, and is the refuge of inferiority to hide its emptiness; added to which, Lord Mowbray could not coolly speculate on worldly advantages, whilst the memory of one connected, though distantly, with him by ties of consanguinity, and with whom he had lived in habits of intimacy and reciprocal kindness, was still fresh in his bosom. Restraining, however, all expression of his feelings, after a consider able pause, he rejoined-" No-very true, I have nothing to do-nothing, absolutely, except to amuse myself; neither have I ever had: but, then, how shall I do that?" and he sighed as he took up a newspaper which lay on the table, and run his eye carelessly over the page. "Ah! what," rejoined Captain Lepel, “always singular? Nobody like you at saying an odd thing. Very excellent, 'faith! I will sport it at Brookes's. A man with twenty thousand a year, young too, and of rank, not know how to amuse himself! Capital, upon my honour! How shall I do that?" Ha ha! ha! Well, perhaps it might afford you some diversion, or at least put you in the way to find some, to go to the rehearsal at the Opera this morning. I have always the entrée at the rehearsals; there will be Così Fan Tutte, a delicious opera, in which the new Prima Donna, Rosalinda Lorenzi, makes her debut." |