The Novels of Charles Lever (Volume 22) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 'What little matter? Those two bills do you mean?' said Martin suddenly. 'Not at all. I'm not the least pressed for cash. I alluded to the club; you promised you 'd put me up, and get one of your popular friends to second me.' 'I remember,' said Martin, evidently relieved from a momentary terror. 'Lord Claude Willoughby or Sir Spencer Cavendish would be the men if we could find them.' ' Lord Claude, I perceive, is here; the paper mentions his name in the dinner company at the Embassy yesterday.' ' Do you know him ?' asked Martin, with an air of innocence that Merl well comprehended as insult. 'No. We've met?I think we've played together?I remember once at Baden ' ' Lord Claude Willoughby, sir,' said a servant, entering with a card,' desires to know if you 're at home ?' ' And won't be denied if you are not,' said his lordship, entering at the same instant, and saluting Martin with great cordiality. CHAPTER XXXI MR. MERL The French have invented a slang word for a quality that deserves a more recognised epithet, and by the expression chic have designated a certain property, by which objects assert their undoubted superiority over all their counterfeits. Thus, your coat from Nugee's, your carriage from Leader's, your bracelet at Storr's and, your bonnet from Madame Palmyre, have all their own peculiar chic, or, in other words, possess a certain invisible, indescribable essence that stamps them as the best of their kind, with an excellence unattainable by imitation, and a charm all their own 1 Of all the products in which this magical propertyinsinuates itself, there is not one to which it contributes so much as the man of fashion. He is the very type of chic. To describe him you are driven to a catalogue of negatives, and you only arrive at anything ...