" The fact is, in our original steam-packet there were some
agreeable fellows, officers, whom I believe I never mentioned to you.
They have been long expecting your worship's offspring, and have gained
great fame in repeating his third-rate stories at second hand; so in
consequence of these messengers I am received with branches of palm.
Here the younkers do nothing but play rackets, billiards, and cards,
race and smoke. To govern men, you must either excel them in their
accomplishments, or despise them. Clay does one, I do the other, and we
are both equally popular. Affectation tells here even better than wit.
Yesterday, at the racket court, sitting in the gallery among strangers,
the ball entered, and lightly struck me and fell at my feet. I picked it
up, and observing a young rifleman excessively stiff, I humbly requested
him to forward its passage into the court, as I really had never thrown
a ball in my life. This incident has been the general subject of
conversation at all the messes to-day!
HIS FUTURE WIFE
[Sidenote: _Disraeli to his Sister (1832)_]
The soiree last night at Bulwer's was really brilliant, much more so
than the first. There were a great many dames of distinction, and no
blues. I should, perhaps, except Sappho, who was quite changed; she had
thrown off Greco-Bromptonian costume and was perfectly _a la Francaise_
and really looked pretty.
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