Page:Romance & Reality 1.pdf/285

Rh "At all events, that gentleman's self-estimate is a pleasant one who believes that every man looks up to, and that every woman is in love with him." "I excuse, however, a great deal in him—

There was something singularly picturesque in the next person that passed—tall, dark, with that flashing and hawk-like glance which generally accompanies a mouth whose expression was that of sarcasm, but whose satire, though bitter enough, seemed rather to spring from the love of amusement than from malice. "That is Lord, the author of two of our very popular novels, of which the last is my especial favourite. 'Yes and No' is a lively etching of modern society—fine in the out line, and animated in colouring; the characters may or may not be portraits, but they are realities. Nothing is more difficult than to paint from nature—nothing so pleasant when achieved. To sketch real life requires a most peculiar talent, and that Lord possesses." "I met with a paragraph in some journal the other day, which made a crime of his taking