The Life of Charles Lever Volume 2

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. 1879 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER I. The Whist Parties--Lord Musketry-- Tom Burke --Major D 's Recollections continued--Trip to Paris--Apoplectic Threatenings--Blunders--G. P. R. Jamea--A Zig-zag Tour--Adventures and Anecdotes--Serenaded by Amateur Bands--A Droll Duel--Killarney--Canon Hayman's Recollections--The O'Donoghue.--A Runaway and Smash! Throughout Lever's last year at Terapleogue he lived a hermit's life: but by no means so at first. Genial friends thronged rooms and grounds, writing and talking, and did their best to make it a little Ferney. His garden--at first given perhaps to wild flowers--gradually, under gentle culture, began sweetly to smile. His reception / rooms were furnished with articles of virtu, choice paintings, pleasant books, and well-stocked albums. An old College friend of his, Sir Kingston James, having been asked by Mrs. Lever to write something about her husband, threw off the following impromptu: --To move the world, exclaimed the sage, A fulcrum's all I want. Deceiver! How could'st thou have redeemed that gage, Without, like us, thou hadst a Lever. A magazine paper of his, in July, 1842, gives a peep VOL. It. B of what he styles his snuggery: Time, eleven o'clock r.M. The moon is faintly struggling through the halfclosed window curtains, to mix her pale light with the red glare of a carcel-lamp that stands on a round table. Books, bronzes, statuettes, with some carving, decorate the walls. Manuscripts and rolls of paper, proof sheets and open letters litter the floor. His German factotum, Kiffer, enters with coffee and curaoa, and later on, summons him to a grilled bone. More exciting pleasures sometimes lit up that quaint old house. Lever liked cards; and many a night, until the small hours, the play ran high....