y her conduct regarding Jason: she
had done everything for Jason: she had got him the toison d'or from the
Queen Mother, and now had to meet him every day with his little blonde
bride on his arm! J. J. compared Ethel, moving in the midst of these
folks, to the Lady amidst the rout of Comus. There they were the Fauns
and Satyrs: there they were, the merry Pagans: drinking and dancing,
dicing and sporting; laughing out jests that never should be spoken;
whispering rendezvous to be written in midnight calendars; jeering at
honest people who passed under their palace windows--jolly rebels and
repealers of the law. Ah, if Mrs. Brown, whose children are gone to
bed at the hotel, knew but the history of that calm dignified-looking
gentleman who sits under her, and over whose patient back she
frantically advances and withdraws her two-franc piece, whilst his own
columns of louis d'or are offering battle to fortune--how she would
shrink away from the shoulder which she pushes! That man so calm and
well bred, with a string of orders on his breast, so well dressed, with
such white hands, has stabbed trusting hearts; severed family ties;
written lying vows; signed false oaths; torn up pitilessly tender
appeals for redress, and tossed away into the fire supplications
blistered with tears; packed cards and cogged dice; or used pistol or
sword as calmly and dexterously as he now ranges his battalions of gold
pieces.

Ridley shrank away from such lawless people with the delicacy belonging
to his timid and retiring nature, but it must be owned that Mr. Clive
was by no means so squeamish. He did not know, in the first place, the
mystery of their iniquities; and his sunny kindly spirit, undimmed by
any of the cares which clouded it subsequently, was disposed to shine
upon all people alike. The world was welcome to him: the day a pleasure:
all nature a gay feast: scarce any dispositions discordant with his own
(for pretension only made him laugh, and hypocrisy he will never be able
to understand if he lives to be a hundred years old): the night brought
him a long sleep, and the morning a glad waking. To those privileges
of youth what enjoyments of age are comparable? what achievements of
ambition? what rewards of money and fame? Clive's happy friendly nature
shone out of his face; and almost all who beheld it felt kindly towards
him. As those guileless virgins of romance and ballad, who walk smiling
through dark forests charming off dragon