Lucretia | Page 7

peculiar shape, low at the crown
and broad at the brim, was worn with an air of devil-me-care defiance;
his watch-chain, garnished with a profusion of rings and seals, hung
low from his white waistcoat; and the adaptation of his nankeen
inexpressibles to his well-shaped limbs was a masterpiece of art. His
whole dress and air was not what could properly be called foppish, it
was rather what at that time was called "rakish." Few could so closely
approach vulgarity without being vulgar: of that privileged few, Mr.
Vernon was one of the elect.
Farther on, and near the steps descending into the garden, stood a man
in an attitude of profound abstraction, his arms folded, his eyes bent on
the ground, his brows slightly contracted; his dress was a plain black
surtout, and pantaloons of the same colour. Something both in the
fashion of the dress, and still more in the face of the man, bespoke the
foreigner.
Sir Miles St. John was an accomplished person for that time of day. He
had made the grand tour; he had bought pictures and statues; he spoke
and wrote well in the modern languages; and being rich, hospitable,
social, and not averse from the reputation of a patron, he had opened
his house freely to the host of emigrants whom the French Revolution
had driven to our coasts. Olivier Dalibard, a man of considerable
learning and rare scientific attainments, had been tutor in the house of
the Marquis de G----, a French nobleman known many years before to
the old baronet. The marquis and his family had been among the first
emigres at the outbreak of the Revolution. The tutor had remained
behind; for at that time no danger appeared to threaten those who
pretended to no other aristocracy than that of letters. Contrary, as he
said, with repentant modesty, to his own inclinations, he had been
compelled, not only for his own safety, but for that of his friends, to
take some part in the subsequent events of the Revolution,--a part far
from sincere, though so well had he simulated the patriot that he had
won the personal favour and protection of Robespierre; nor till the fall

of that virtuous exterminator had he withdrawn from the game of
politics and effected in disguise his escape to England. As, whether
from kindly or other motives, he had employed the power of his
position in the esteem of Robespierre to save certain noble heads from
the guillotine,--amongst others, the two brothers of the Marquis de
G----, he was received with grateful welcome by his former patrons,
who readily pardoned his career of Jacobinism from their belief in his
excuses and their obligations to the services which that very career had
enabled him to render to their kindred. Olivier Dalibard had
accompanied the marquis and his family in one of the frequent visits
they paid to Laughton; and when the marquis finally quitted England,
and fixed his refuge at Vienna, with some connections of his wife's, he
felt a lively satisfaction at the thought of leaving his friend honourably,
if unambitiously, provided for as secretary and librarian to Sir Miles St.
John. In fact, the scholar, who possessed considerable powers of
fascination, had won no less favour with the English baronet than he
had with the French dictator. He played well both at chess and
backgammon; he was an extraordinary accountant; he had a variety of
information upon all points that rendered him more convenient than
any cyclopaedia in Sir Miles's library; and as he spoke both English and
Italian with a correctness and fluency extremely rare in a Frenchman,
he was of considerable service in teaching languages to, as well as
directing the general literary education of, Sir Miles's favourite niece,
whom we shall take an early opportunity to describe at length.
Nevertheless, there had been one serious obstacle to Dalibard's
acceptance of the appointment offered to him by Sir Miles. Dalibard
had under his charge a young orphan boy of some ten or twelve years
old,--a boy whom Sir Miles was not long in suspecting to be the
scholar's son. This child had come from France with Dalibard, and
while the marquis's family were in London, remained under the eye and
care of his guardian or father, whichever was the true connection
between the two. But this superintendence became impossible if
Dalibard settled in Hampshire with Sir Miles St. John, and the boy
remained in London; nor, though the generous old gentleman offered to
pay for the child's schooling, would Dalibard consent to part with him.
At last the matter was arranged: the boy was invited to Laughton on a

visit, and was so lively, yet so well mannered, that he became a
favourite, and was now fairly quartered in the house with