Part 52 (2/2)
”....And sure the match Were rich and honourable.”
--_Two Gentlemen of Verona_.
”We that are true lovers run into strange capers.”
--_As You Like It_.
”....That which I would discover, The law of friends.h.i.+p bids me to conceal.”
--_Two Gentlemen of Verona._
”Tarry I here, I but attend on death; But fly I hence, I fly away from life.”
”DEAR me! what can it possibly mean? how I wish I could guess it!” said the youngest Miss Simper.
”Do you know what it is, Mr. Oaklands?” asked the second Miss Simper.
”I'm sure he does, he looks so delightfully wicked,” added the eldest Miss Simper, shaking her ringlets in a fascinating manner, to evince her faith in the durability of their curl.
The eldest Miss Simper had been out four seasons, and spent the last winter at Nice, on the strength of which she talked to young men of themselves in the third person, to show her knowledge of the world, and embodied in her behaviour generally a complete system of ”Matrimony-made-easy, or the whole Art of getting a good Establishment,”
proceeding from early lessons in converting acquaintances into flirts, up to the important final clause--how to lead young men of property to propose.
”Really,” replied Oaklands, ”my face must be far more expressive and less honest than I was aware of, for I can a.s.sure you they have studiously kept me in the dark as to the meaning.”
”But you have made out some idea for yourself; it is impossible that it should be otherwise,” observed the second Miss Simper, who had rubbed off some of her shyness upon a certain young Hebrew Professor at the last Cambridge Installation, and become rather blue from the contact.
”Have you?” said the youngest Miss Simper, who, being as nearly a fool as it is possible to allow that a pretty girl of seventeen can be, rested her pretensions upon a plaintive voice and a pensive smile, which went -351-- just far enough to reveal an irreproachable set of teeth, and then faded away into an expression of gentle sorrow, the source of which, like that of the Niger, had as yet remained undiscovered.
”Oh, he has!” exclaimed the eldest Miss Simper; ”that exquisitely sarcastic, yet tantalising curl of the upper-lip, tells me that it is so.”
”Since you press me,” replied Oaklands, ”I confess, I believe I have guessed it.”
”I knew it--it could not have been otherwise,” exclaimed the blue belle enthusiastically.
The youngest Miss Simper spoke not, but her appealing glance, and a slight exhibition of the pearl-like teeth, seemed to hint that some mysterious increase of her secret sorrow might be expected in the event of Oaklands' refusing to communicate the results of his penetration.
”As I make it out,” said Harry, ”the first scene was Inn, the second Constancy, and the third Inconstancy.”
”Ah! that wretch John, he was the Inconstancy,” observed the eldest Miss Simper, ”marrying for money!--the creature!--such baseness 1 but how delightfully that dear, clever Mr. Lawless acted; he made love with such _nave_ simplicity, too; he is quite irresistible.”
”I shall take care to let him know your flattering opinion,” returned Oaklands with a faint attempt at a smile, while the gloom on his brow grew deeper, and the Misses Simper were in their turn deserted; the eldest gaining this slight addition to her worldly knowledge, viz., that it is not always prudent to praise one friend to another, unless you happen to be a little more behind the scenes than had been the case in the present instance.
”Umph! Frank Fairlegh, where are you? come here, boy,” said Mr.
Frampton, seizing one of my b.u.t.tons, and towing me thereby into a corner. ”Pretty girl, your sister f.a.n.n.y--nice girl, too--umph!”
”I am very glad she pleases you, sir,” replied I; ”as you become better acquainted with her, you will find that she is as good as she looks--if you like her now, you will soon grow very fond of her--everybody becomes fond of f.a.n.n.y.”
”Umph! I can see one who is, at all events. Pray, sir, do you mean to let your sister marry that good-natured, well-disposed, harum-scarum young fool, Lawless?”
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