" A clever sobriquet fathered on him,
burlesquing the monosyllabic names of a well-known diarist and
official, he repelled indignantly. "He is my friend, and had I
been guilty of the jeu, I should have broken two of my
commandments; that which forbids my joking at a friend's expense,
and that which forbids my fashioning a play upon words." He
entreated Madame Novikoff to visit and cheer Charles Lever, dying
at Trieste; deeply lamented Sir H. Bulwer's death: "I used to
think his a beautiful intellect, and he was wonderfully simpatico
to me." But he was shy of condoling with bereaved mourners,
believing words used on such occasions to be utterly untrue. He
loved to include husband and wife in the same meed of admiration,
as in the case of Dean Stanley and Lady Augusta, or of Sir Robert
and Lady Emily Peel. Peel, he said, has the RADIANT quality not
easy to describe; Lady Emily is always beauteous, bright,
attractive. Lord Stanhope he praised as a historian, paying him
the equivocal compliment that his books were much better than his
conversation. So, too, he qualified his admiration of Lady
Ashburton, dwelling on her beauty, silver voice, ready enthusiasm
apt to disperse itself by flying at too many objects.
Pages:
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138