Page:Paul Clifford Vol 3.djvu/65

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PAUL CLIFFORD.
57

bowed to him, with his hat off, when it was all over, and returned him his watch and ten guineas,—it was worth the sacrifice!"

"And the next was an old maid of quality," said Ned, "as lean as a lawyer.—Don't you remember how she curveted?"

"To be sure," said Tomlinson, "and you very wittily called her a hop-pole!"

"How delighted she was with the Captain's suavity! When he gave her back her earrings, and aigrette, she bade him with a tender sigh keep them for her sake,—ha! ha!"

"And the third was a beau!" cried Augustus, "and Lovett surrendered his right of partnership to me. Do you recollect how I danced his beauship into the ditch?—ah! we were mad fellows then; but we get sated, blasé, as the French say, as we grow older!"

"We look only to the main chance now!" said Ned.

"Avarice supersedes enterprise," added the sententious Augustus.

"And our Captain takes to wine with an h after the w!" continued the metaphorical Ned.