Graham Hamilton Volume 1 - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1822 edition. Excerpt: ...grounds, and I accepted the offer with a gratitude those alone can understand who have been themselves in a similar situation. Indeed no one who has not been bred up in retreat, can comprehend what it is to be exposed to the insolent stare and the pretended condescension of people, soi-disant of fashion. After a dull walk in a drizzling rain, we came in, and I, retiring to my apartment, reformed my dress. During dinner, which appeared to me as endless as the time when We had been waiting much laughter, many repartees: --an old Lord and a young gentleman talked incessantly, telling many anecdotes, which, if not as tedious, were certainly as long, and, I believe, not as correctly true, as my uncle the Captain's. It was singular to see the devotion those silly personages paid to Sir Everard, who, never relaxing from the rigidity of truth, checked their flippant impertinence by a simple ' Yes, ' or ' No; ' or, ' It has been said, but I have no reason to believe it;' or, 'Upon what authority do you advance this fact?' whilst champaigne and claret were drank around in copious goblets, as if they had been water: and the length of the repast, and the shyness under which for it, there was much conversation, I laboured, inclined me to regret, more than once, Sir Malcolm's one joint and dark apartment. Yet I felt the necessity of self-composure, and of assuming some of Gertrude's calmness and good-humour. I spoke little, and respectfully; opposed none of the exaggerations I heard; and, when obliged to make any remark, strove to confine myself to that which would give the least offence. Still I perceived a good deal of laughter; and not having then read ' Lord Chesterfield's...