192 A COMFORTING THOUGHT. It was many days before the ex-member for C***** sufficiently recovered the tone of his mind to think further of Alice; when he did, it was with great satisfaction that he reflected that Darvil was no more, and that the deceased ruffian was only known to the neighbourhood by the name of Peter Watts. END OF BOOK IV. вашшь толкани BOOK V. Ο μουσοποιός ενθαδ' Ιππώναξ κεῖται. THEOCRITUS-Epig. in Hippon. PARODY. My hero, turn'd author, lies mute in this section, You may pass by the place if you're bored by reflection: But if honest enough to be fond of the muse, Stay, and read where you're able, and sleep where you choose. VOL. I.-R BOOK V. CHAPTER I. "My genius spreads her wing, And flies where Britain courts the western spring. WITH What a proud and exciting feeling an Englishman ought to enter London, after a prolonged absence in other countries! The public buildings are few, and, for the most part, mean; the monuments of antiquity not comparable to those which the pettiest town in Italy can boast of; the palaces are sad rubbish; the houses of our peers and princes are shabby and shapeless heaps of brick. But what of all this? the spirit of London is in her thoroughfares-her population! What wealth, what cleanliness, what order, what animation! How majestic, and yet how vivid, is the life that runs through her myriad veins! How, as the lamps blaze upon you at night, and street after street glides by your wheels, each so regular in its symmetry, so equal in its civilization-how impressively do you feel that you are in the metropolis of a FREE PEOPLE, with healthful institutions, and exulting still in the undecayed energies of national youth and vigour. Yes, Maltravers felt his heart swell within him as the post-horses whirled on his dingy carriage-over Westminster Bridge-along Whitehall-through Regent-street-towards one of the quiet and private-houselike hotels that are scattered round the neighbourhood of Grosvenor Square. Then the warmth, the comfort, the attendance of an English hotel! Truly, it is a charming country for the rich; but for the poor-" ah, si vous êtes p- de c― tant pis pour vous !”* * Voltaire. 196 ERNEST VISITS CLEVELAND. Ernest's arrival had been expected. He had written from Paris to Cleveland to announce it; and Cleveland had, in reply, informed him that he had engaged apartments for him at Mivart's. The smiling waiters ushered him into a spacious and well-aired room-the armchair was already wheeled by the fire, a score or so of letters strewed the table, together with two of the evening papers. And how eloquently of busy England do those evening papers speak! A stranger might have felt that he wanted no friend to welcome him-the whole room smiled upon him a welcome. Maltravers ordered his dinner and opened his letters: they were of no importance; one from his steward, one from his banker, another about the country races, a fourth from a man he had never heard of, requesting the vote and powerful interest of Mr. Maltravers for the county of B- should the rumour of a dissolution be verified. The unknown candidate referred Mr. Maltravers to his "well-known public character;" from these epistles Ernest turned impatiently, and perceived a little three-cornered note which had hitherto escaped his attention. It was from Cleveland, intimating that he was in town; that his health still precluded his going out, but that he trusted to see his dear Ernest as soon as he arrived. Maltravers was delighted at the prospect of passing his evening so agreeably; he soon despatched his dinner and his newspapers, and walked, in the brilliant lamplight of a clear frosty evening of early December in London, to his friend's house in Curzon-street. It was a small, bachelor-like, unpretending mansion; for Cleveland spent his moderate though easy fortune almost entirely at his own country villa. The familiar face of the old valet greeted Ernest at the door, and he only paused to hear that his guardian was nearly recovered to his usual health ere he was in the cheerful drawing-room, and-since Englishmen do not embrace-returning the cordial gripe of the kindly Cleveland. "Well, my dear Ernest," said Cleveland, after he had got through the preliminary round of questions and answers, "here you are at last: Heaven be praised; and how well you are looking-how much you are improved! It is an excellent period of the year for your debût in London. I shall have time to make you inti |