"
Nigel acquiesced in a plan which promised so much amusement; and his
new friend and he, attended by Lutin and Moniplies, who greatly
resembled, when thus associated, the conjunction of a bear and a
monkey, took possession of Lord Dalgarno's wherry, which, with its
badged watermen, bearing his lordship's crest on their arms, lay in
readiness to receive them. The air was delightful upon the river; and
the lively conversation of Lord Dalgarno added zest to the pleasures
of the little voyage. He could not only give an account of the various
public buildings and noblemen's houses which they passed in ascending
the Thames, but knew how to season his information with abundance of
anecdote, political innuendo, and personal scandal; if he had not very
much wit, he was at least completely master of the fashionable tone,
which in that time, as in ours, more than amply supplies any
deficiency of the kind.
It was a style of conversation entirely new to his companion, as was
the world which Lord Dalgarno opened to his observation; and it is no
wonder that Nigel, notwithstanding his natural good sense and high
spirit, admitted, more readily than seemed consistent with either, the
tone of authoritative instruction which his new friend assumed towards
him. There would, indeed, have been some difficulty in making a stand.
To attempt a high and stubborn tone of morality, in answer to the
light strain of Lord Dalgarno's conversation, which kept on the
frontiers between jest and earnest, would have seemed pedantic and
ridiculous; and every attempt which Nigel made to combat his
companion's propositions, by reasoning as jocose as his own, only
showed his inferiority in that gay species of controversy.
Pages:
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253