Page:Paul Clifford Vol 2.djvu/173

Rh The good Squire was still immersed in the vicissitudes of his game, and the sole task of receiving and entertaining "the company," as the chamber-maids have it, fell, as usual, upon Lucy. Fortunately for her, Clifford was one of those rare persons who possess eminently the talents of society. There was much in his gay and gallant temperament, accompanied as it was with sentiment and ardour, that resembled our beau idéal of those chevaliers, ordinarily peculiar to the Continent—heroes equally in the drawing-room and the field. Observant, courteous, witty, and versed in the various accomplishments that combine (that most unfrequent of all unions!) vivacity with grace, he was especially formed for that brilliant world from which his circumstances tended to exclude him. Under different auspices, he might have beenPooh! We are running into a most pointless common-place;—what might any man be under auspices different from those by which his life has been guided?—Music soon succeeded to conversation, and Clifford's voice was of necessity