Page:Paul Clifford Vol 2.djvu/77

Rh figure, altogether of a better taste in dress, and possessing a manner that, though it had equal ease, was not equally noticeable for impudence and swagger.

"Who can those be?" said Lucy's female friend in a wondering tone, "I never saw them before—they must be great people—they have all the airs of persons of quality!—Dear, how odd that I should not know them!"

While the good lady, who, like all good ladies of that stamp, thought people of quality had airs, was thus, lamenting her ignorance of the new comers, a general whisper of a similar import was already circulating round the room;—"Who are they?" and the universal answer was, "Can't tell—never saw them before!"

Our strangers seemed by no means displeased with the evident and immediate impression they had made. They stood in the most conspicuous part of the room, enjoying among themselves, a low conversation, frequently broken by fits of laughter; tokens, we need not add, of their supereminently good breeding. The beautiful figure of the youngest stranger, and the simple