Page:Paul Clifford Vol 1.djvu/72

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42
PAUL CLIFFORD.

cian,—a study by day, and a dream by night. He was docile enough during lessons, and sometimes even too quick in conception for the stately march of Mr. Mac Grawler's intellect. But it not unfrequently happened, that when that gentleman attempted to rise, he found himself, like the lady in Comus, adhering to

"A venomed seat
Smeared with gums of glutinous heat;"

or his legs had been secretly united under the table, and the tie was not to be broken without overthrow to the superior powers; these, and various other little sportive machinations wherewith Paul was wont to relieve the monotony of literature, went far to disgust the learned critic with his undertaking. But 'the tape' and the treasury of Mrs. Lobkins re-smoothed, as it were, the irritated bristles of his mind, and he continued his labours with this philosophical reflection—"Why fret myself?—if a pupil turn out well, it is clearly to the credit of his master; if not, to the disadvantage of himself." Of course,