He has not much humour; but he has that kind of wit which is essential to grave and serious irony.

He has not much imagination, nor remarkable subtlety in reasoning; but if he does not dazzle he does not bore,--he is too much of the man of the world for that.

He is considered to have sound sense and accurate judgment.

Withal, as he now lays aside the journals, and his face relaxes its austerer lines, you will not be astonished to hear that he is a man who is said to have been greatly beloved by women, and still to exercise much influence in drawing-rooms and boudoirs.

At least, no one was surprised when the great heiress, Clementina Leslie, kinswoman and ward to Lord Lansmere,--a young lady who had refused three earls and the heir apparent to a dukedom,--was declared by her dearest friends to be dying of love for Audley Egerton.