Page:Paul Clifford Vol 2.djvu/182

174 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.

"Oh! she is!—Mr. Muskwell—humph!—good family the Muskwells—came from Primrose Hall.—Pray, Captain,—not that I want to know for my own sake, for I am a strange, odd person, I believe, and I am thoroughly convinced—(some people are censorious, and others, thank God, are not!)—of your respectability,—what family do you come from? you won't think my—my caution impertinent?" added the shrewd old gentleman, borrowing that phrase which he thought so friendly in the mouth of Lord Mauleverer.

Clifford coloured for a moment, but replied with a quiet archness of look, "Family—oh, my dear Sir, I come from an old family, a very old family indeed."

"So I always thought; and in what part of the world?"