whether it was that he corrupted into fortunate dissimulation the minds
that he betrayed into guilt, or whether he chose his victims with so just
a knowledge of their characters, and of the circumstances round them, that
he might be sure the secrecy maintained by himself would scarcely be
divulged elsewhere. All the world attributed to Augustus Saville the most
various and consummate success in that quarter in which success is most
envied by the lighter part of the world: yet no one could say exactly who,
amongst the many he addressed, had been the object of his triumph. The
same quiet, and yet victorious discretion waited upon all he did. Never
had he stooped to win celebrity from horses or from carriages; nothing in
his equipages showed the ambition to be distinguished from another; least
of all did he affect that most displeasing of minor ostentatious, that
offensive exaggeration of neatness, that outre simplicity, which our young
nobles and aspiring bankers so ridiculously think it bon ton to assume.
No harness, industriously avoiding brass; no liveries, pretending to the
tranquillity of a gentleman's dress; no panels, disdaining the armorial
attributes of which real dignity should neither be ashamed nor
proud--converted plain taste into a display of plainness. He seldom
appeared at races, and never hunted; though he was profound master of the
calculations in the first, and was, as regarded the second, allowed to be
one of the most perfect masters of horsemanship in his time. So, in his
chess, while he chose even sedulously what became him most, he avoided the
appearance of coxcombry, by a disregard to minutiae. He did not value
himself on the perfection of his boot; and suffered a wrinkle in his coat
without a sigh: yet, even the exquisites of the time allowed that no one
was more gentlemanlike in the tout ensemble; and while he sought by other
means than dress to attract, he never even in dress offended. Carefully
shunning the character of the professed wit, or the general talker, he was
yet piquant, shrewd, and animated to the few persons whom he addressed, or
with whom he associated: and though he had refused all offers to enter