Page:Paul Clifford Vol 1.djvu/81

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PAUL CLIFFORD.
51

with the appliances of flageolet and cremona, boxing-gloves, books, fly-flanking flagellum, three guineas, with the little mountain of silver, and the reputation—shared only with Lord Dunshunner—of being the best whip in London.

"Yes!" continued Tomlinson, with conscious pride,—"I owe my rise to myself. Learning is better than house and land. 'Doctrina sed vim,' &c.—You know what old Horace says?—Why, Sir, you would not believe it; but I was the man who killed his Majesty the King of Sardinia, in our yesterday's paper. Nothing is too arduous for genius. Fag hard, my boy, and you may rival—for the thing, though difficult, may not be impossible—Augustus Tomlinson!"

At the conclusion of this harangue, a knock at the door being heard, Paul took his departure, and met in the hall a fine-looking person dressed in the height of the fashion, and wearing a pair of prodigiously large buckles in his shoes. Paul looked, and his heart swelled. "I may rival," thought he—those were his very words—"I may rival,—for the thing, though difficult, is not impossible—Augustus Tomlinson!" Absorbed in meditation,