Theodore Hook Author:John Gibson Lockhart Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: . LADY HERTFORD—THE REGENT. 29 Regent at a supper in Manchester Square. We have heard him describe his presentation to the Prince :—his awe at first was somet... more »hing quite terrible—but good-humoured condescension and plenty of champagne by and by restored him to himself, and the young man so delighted his Royal Highness, that as he was leaving the room he laid his hand on his shoulder and said, ' Mr. Hook, I must see and hear you again.' After a few more similar evenings at Lady Hertford's, and, we believe, a dinner or two elsewhere, the Regent made inquiry about his position, and, finding that he was without profession or fixed income of any sort, signified hi? opinion that ' something must be done for Hook.' The delicate and fastidious, but on the whole very dull world of fashion never wants more than a decent pretext to receive with alacrity a recruit pos- sessing any considerable faculty of entertainment, not overbalanced by gross untowardness of aspect, manner, or temper. Hook's personal appearance was good, his demeanour naturally easy, his disposition sweet and gentle. With such quickness of parts and such inherent good-humour, he could hardly mix for a week in any new variety of social arrangement without learning how it was to be conciliated, and instinctively exemplifying sure methods of attraction. The ladies' tact soon discovered that, though there might be something like petulance inhis first address, there was no real presumptuousness in his composition. The wonder had passed rapidly into a favourite throughout Mayfair. He had seen its boudoirs as well as its saloons—and narrowly escaped various dangers incidental to that career—among the rest, from at least one duel (with General Thornton), in which transaction, from first to last, he was allowed to show equal sp...« less