Page:Paul Clifford Vol 3.djvu/167

Rh "You ought to be chairman to the 'Ways and Means' Committee!" cried Mauleverer; "my mind is now easy; and when once poor Clifford is gone—'fallen from a high estate,'—we may break the matter gently to her, and, as I intend thereon to be very respectful, very delicate, &c. she cannot but be sensible of my kindness and real affection!"

"And if a live dog be better than a dead lion," added Brandon, "surely an animate lord will be better than a hanged highwayman!"

"According to ordinary logic," rejoined Mauleverer, "that syllogism is clear enough; and though I believe a girl may cling, now and then, to the memory of a departed lover, I do not think she will when the memory is allied with shame. Love is nothing more than vanity pleased;—wound the vanity, and you destroy the love! Lucy will be forced, after having made so bad a choice of a lover, to make a good one in a husband,—in order to recover her self-esteem!"

"And therefore you are certain of her!" said Brandon ironically.

"Thanks to my star—my garter—my