CHAPTER VI
The Evening


Mr Panscope, highly irritated by the cool contempt with which Mr Escot
had treated him, sate sipping his coffee and meditating revenge. He
was not long in discovering the passion of his antagonist for the
beautiful Cephalis, for whom he had himself a species of predilection;
and it was also obvious to him, that there was some lurking anger in
the mind of her father, unfavourable to the hopes of his rival. The
stimulus of revenge, superadded to that of preconceived inclination,
determined him, after due deliberation, to _cut out_ Mr Escot in the
young lady's favour. The practicability of this design he did not
trouble himself to investigate; for the havoc he had made in the
hearts of some silly girls, who were extremely vulnerable to flattery,
and who, not understanding a word he said, considered him a
_prodigious clever man_, had impressed him with an unhesitating idea
of his own irresistibility. He had not only the requisites already
specified for fascinating female vanity, he could likewise fiddle with
tolerable dexterity, though by no means so _quick_ as Mr Chromatic
(for our readers are of course aware that rapidity of execution, not
delicacy of expression, constitutes the scientific perfection of
modern music), and could warble a fashionable love-ditty with
considerable affectation of feeling: besides this, he was always
extremely well dressed, and was heir-apparent to an estate of ten
thousand a-year. The influence which the latter consideration might
have on the minds of the majority of his female acquaintance, whose
morals had been formed by the novels of such writers as Miss Philomela
Poppyseed, did not once enter into his calculation of his own personal
attractions. Relying, therefore, on past success, he determined _to