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TREMAINE,

OR

THE MAN OF REFINEMENT.

CHAP. I.

AN ARRIVAL IN SOLITUDE.

"Oh! Jupiter! how weary are my spirits!"

SHAKSPEARE.

It was the middle of August; the great gates of Belmont were thrown open by the obsequious porter at the lodge; a barouche and four, well appointed, drove in at a gallop, and rapidly neared the hall, the steps of which were lined with servants; and every thing denoted the arrival of a man of consequence, at his seat in the country.

It was TREMAINE; a name known in the political world for talents and integrity; in the fashion

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able, as an ornament of the higher circles; and in the female, as belonging to a man whom all prudent mothers wished to obtain for their daughters, and many a daughter for herself. He was in truth a person of great polish, refined taste, and high reputation.

He was alone, and alighted from his carriage with a jaded look, and the air of a person little pleased with himself; yet he had come the whole way from London without stop or accident, through a fine country, and in delightful weather.

To the salutations of his servants of the upper class, he replied as if he received their attentions kindly, but was too much self-absorbed to think about them. At the same time he complained of fatigue, said the roads were execrable, and the weather hot.

Now the roads had been very good, and the weather temperate. His housekeeper, a respectable woman who had lived with his mother, and with whom he usually interchanged a few words of kindness on his arrival at home, lingered behind the rest. "I have no orders for you, Watson," he said, "but that dinner should be served at eight." The housekeeper slowly moved off, wondering, if not hurt, at the reserve of a master, whose affability had always been uniform to his servants, and flattering to herself.

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"And how to pass the time till then?" continued he to himself; "how to find here what London cannot afford?" (and he paced the room in serious musing); "these are questions after all: yes! after all" (and he laid stress upon the words, "not easily settled. Yet serenity" (throwing up the sash, which opened upon a diversified country) "seems to live in these woods; and equally" (turning to the interior of the apartment) "in these rooms."

The pictures of his grand and great grandfathers, their wives, and a train of uncles and aunts, some in hunting coats, with dogs and fowling-pieces, some in full suits of velvet, some with distaffs, and some with crooks, caught his eye as he said this. They seemed all to partake of the general quiet. All the little cares and vexations of life were over with them; if indeed they had ever had any; so composed was their air, and so placidly did they appear to look upon their descendant.

"After life's fitful fever, they sleep well," said Tremaine, as he moved slowly along, and contemplated them one after the other. "Without dying, I will endeavour to do so too; and here will be the best chance for it. And yet," continued he, after a pause, and returning to the prospect, "there are not wanting persons who think woods and fields dulness, and a palace in the country a prison."

He paused again, but added, "thank God! I am

not of that opinion: on the contrary, it is the world that is dull and uninteresting: or where it is otherwise, only so because it is wrangling, knavish, and false."

The thought did not please. "Here, however," he went on, "I can retire into myself-here keep the designing, the treacherous, and the vulgar, all at an equal distance." At this he threw himself on a sofa, and a profound reverie seemed gradually to subside into a doze of several minutes; so that, in figure at least, though not in placidity, he gave one the idea of that happy prelate, who

"Muni d'un déjeuner,

"Dormant d'un léger somme, attendoit le dîner.'

He had, in

But no! it was not un léger somme. fact, dozed almost the whole way from London; having scarcely opened his eyes to the prospects he had passed through, though the harvest, in all the pride of ripeness, had courted him to cheerfulness.

In truth, he had not felt his interest awakened during a single mile of the journey; a fault perhaps owing to the necessity he had imposed upon himself, of getting to Belmont as fast as the horses could carry him.

He continued on his couch for some minutes,

* Lutrin.

when his valet entered, and asked if he would dress. "No!" was the reply (and a sort of sigh escaped him), "there is nothing here, I apprehend, worth dressing for." The interruption, however, roused him. "I will go," said he, "to the library."

It was a very magnificent room, and had lately received a considerable accession from an expensive new purchase, which had been ranged in the modern taste by a fashionable architect. He was charmed with the effect, and throwing himself into a reading chair of exquisite invention, "I will here," said he, "pass the greatest part of my time; the treasures of science are at my command, and he who has them, has every thing. How flat and unprofitable would seem this same world, which we all of us so strangely court, if man but knew his own nature, and could live up to its dignity. But to do this he must do as I have done;-retire from the forwardness of upstart impertinence, or the caprice of those whom we may have most loved and trusted."

A volume of Shaftesbury lying open before him, he looked over its pompous engravings and classical emblems- representations of his Lordship's library, and of his Lordship's self." He was an elegant man," said Tremainé, turning over the pages, ❝and

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a real philosopher; and if he did not discover truth, he at least detected falsehood. I shall delight, like

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