212520_The_Adve ... _Way_Through_The_World.pdf - OUDL Home

22 A SHABBY GENTEEL STORY
beside the pier; and about four sailors, in pea-jackets, are to be
seen in the three principal streets; in the rest, silence, closed
shutters, torpid chimneys enjoying their unnatural winter sinecure
—not the clack of a patten echoing over the cold dry flags !
This solitude had been chosen by Mr. Brandon for good reasons
of his own ; Gann and his family would have fled, but that they
had no other house wherein to take refuge ; and Mrs. Hammerton,
the auctioneer's lady, felt so keenly the kindness which she was
doing to Mrs. Gann, in providing her with a lodger at such a
period, that she considered herself fully justified in extracting from
the latter a bonus of two guineas, threatening on refusal to send
her darling nephew to a rival establishment over the way.
Andrea was here then, in the loneliness that he loved,—a
fantastic youth, who lived but for his art; to whom the world
was like the Coburg Theatre, and he in a magnificent costume
acting a principal part. His art, and his beard and whiskers, were
the darlings of his heart. His long pale hair fell over a high
polished brow, which looked wonderfully thoughtful; and yet no
man was more guiltless of thinking. He was always putting himself
into attitudes ; he never spoke the truth ; and was so entirely
affected and absurd, as to be quite honest at last: for it is my
belief that the man did not know truth from falsehood any longer,
and was when he was alone, when he was in company, nay, when
he was unconscious and sound asleep snoring in bed, one complete
lump of affectation. When his apartments on the second floor
were arranged according to his fancy, they made a tremendous
show. He had a large Gothic chest, in which he put his wardrobe
(namely, two velvet waistcoats, four varied satin under ditto, two
pairs braided trousers, two shirts, half-a-dozen false collars, and a
couple of pairs of dreadfully dilapidated Blucher boots). He had
some pieces of armour; some China jugs and Venetian glasses;
some bits of old damask rags, to drape his doors and windows :
and a rickety lay figure, in a Spanish hat and cloak, over which
slung a long Toledo rapier, and a guitar, with a riband of dirty
sky-blue.
Such was our poor fellow's stock in trade. He had some
volumes of poems—" Lalla Rookh," and the sterner compositions of
Byron ; for, to do him justice, he hated " Don Juan," and a woman
was in his eyes an angel ; a hangel, alas ! he would call her, for
nature and the circumstances of his family had taken sad Cockney
advantages over Andrea's pronunciation.
The Misses Wellesley Macarty were not, however, very
squeamish with regard to grammar, and, in this dull season, voted
Mr. Fitch an elegant young fellow. His immense beard and