his classical weapons with a scholar's dexterity, not a pedant's
inaptitude: for such a one there is a sort of agreeable confusion in
their respect; they are inclined, unconsciously, to believe that he must
necessarily be a high gentleman--ay, and something of a good fellow into
the bargain.

It happened then that Aram could not have dwelt upon a theme more likely
to arrest the spontaneous interest of those with whom he now conversed--
men themselves of more cultivated minds than usual, and more capable than
most (from that acute perception of real talent, which is produced by
habitual political warfare,) of appreciating not only his endowments, but
his facility in applying them.

"You are right, my Lord," said Sir--, the whipper-in of the--party,
taking the Earl aside; "he would be an inestimable pamphleteer."

"Could you get him to write us a sketch of the state of parties;
luminous, eloquent?'" whispered a lord of the bed-chamber.

The Earl answered by a bon mot, and turned to a bust of Caracalla.

The hours at that time were (in the country at least) not late, and the
Earl was one of the first introducers of the polished fashion of France,
by which we testify a preference of the society of the women to that of
our own sex; so that, in leaving the dining-room, it was not so late but
that the greater part of the guests walked out upon the terrace, and
admired the expanse of country which it overlooked, and along which the
thin veil of the twilight began now to hover.

Having safely deposited his royal guest at a whist table, and thus left