United States or Mexico ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
At the name of the person thus introduced to me, a thousand recollections crowded upon my mind; the contemporary and rival of Napoleon the autocrat of the great world of fashion and cravats the mighty genius before whom aristocracy had been humbled and ton abashed at whose nod the haughtiest noblesse of Europe had quailed who had introduced, by a single example, starch into neckcloths, and had fed the pampered appetite of his boot-tops on champagne whose coat and whose friend were cut with an equal grace and whose name was connected with every triumph that the world's great virtue of audacity could achieve the illustrious, the immortal Russelton, stood before me.
"So," said Sir Willoughby "so, Russelton, you like your quarters here; plenty of sport among the English, I should think: you have not forgot the art of quizzing; eh, old fellow?" "Even if I had," said Mr. Russelton, speaking very slowly, "the sight of Sir Willoughby Townshend would be quite sufficient to refresh my memory.
People who have been employed for years upon trifles have not the greatness of mind, which could alone make them indifferent to what they have coveted all their lives, as most enviable and important. "Have you read 's memoirs?" said Mr. Russelton. "No! Well, I imagined every one had at least dipped into them.
"What are you doing? for Heaven's sake, what are you doing?" cried Russelton, starting up; "do you mean to kill me?" "Kill you!" said Sir Willoughby, quite aghast. "Yes; kill me! is it not quite cold enough already in this d d seafaring place, without making my only retreat, humble as it is, a theatre for thorough draughts?
When he was gone, Russelton threw himself back in his chair, and laughed for several minutes with a loud chuckling sound, till the tears ran down his cheek. After a few jests at Sir Willoughby, our conversation turned upon other individuals.
I recognised in him a congenial, though a superior spirit, and I bowed with a profundity of veneration, with which no other human being has ever inspired me. Mr. Russelton seemed pleased with my evident respect, and returned my salutation with a mock dignity which enchanted me. He offered me his disengaged arm; I took it with transport, and we all three proceeded up the street.
"My mistress could not withhold from me her admiration, but she denied me her love. She confessed Mr. Russelton was the best dressed man at the University, and had the whitest hands; and two days after this avowal, she ran away with a great rosy-cheeked extract from Leicestershire. "I did not blame her: I pitied her too much but I made a vow never to be in love again.
I hope, at least, they would have put the cause of my death in my epitaph 'Died, of an Englishman, John Russelton, Esq., aged, Pah! You are not engaged, Mr. Pelham; dine with me to-day; Willoughby and his umbrella are coming." "Volontiers," said I, "though I was going to make observations on men and manners at the table d'hote of my hotel." "I am most truly grieved," replied Mr.
I soon saw that Russelton was a soured and disappointed man; his remarks on people were all sarcasms his mind was overflowed with a suffusion of ill-nature he bit as well as growled. No man of the world ever, I am convinced, becomes a real philosopher in retirement.
Russelton started for a moment, and then, with a politeness he had not deigned to exert before, approached his chair to mine, and began a conversation, which, in spite of his bad witticisms, and peculiarity of manner, I found singularly entertaining.
Word Of The Day