But, then,
on the other side was the money--a great and agreeable arithmetical fact
not to be shaken--and she could be well-bred when she liked, and a
self-possessed, dignified lady, who could sail about a room, and
courtesy, and manage her fan, and lead the conversation, and do the
honours, as Mrs. Cluffe, with a certain air of _haut ton_, and in an
imposing way, to Cluffe's entire content, who liked the idea of
overawing his peers.
And the two warriors, side by side, marched over the bridge, in the
starlight, and both by common consent, halted silently, and wheeled up
to the battlement; and Puddock puffed a complacent little sigh up the
river toward Belmont; and Cluffe was a good deal interested in the
subject of his contemplation, and in fact, the more he thought of it,
the better he liked it.
And they stood, each in his reverie, looking over the battlement toward
Belmont, and hearing the hushed roll of the river, and seeing nothing
but the deep blue, and the stars, and the black outline of the trees
that overhung the bridge, until the enamoured Cluffe, who liked his
comforts, and knew what gout was, felt the chill air, and remembered
suddenly that they had stopped, and ought to be in motion toward their
beds, and so he shook up Puddock, and they started anew, and parted just
at the Phoenix, shaking hands heartily, like two men who had just done
a good stroke of business together.
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