There was one standing behind the queen who listened to these outbreaks
of the king's bilious temper, as he called it, with an apparently
respectful solicitude, but with the deepest disgust in his heart. A
slender, elegant figure, in a court suit, faultlessly and carefully
perfect in that costume, stands behind the queen's chair. It is Lord
Hervey. His lofty forehead, his features, which have a refinement of
character, his well-turned mouth, and full and dimpled chin, form his
claims to that beauty which won the heart of the lovely Mary Lepel;
whilst the somewhat thoughtful and pensive expression of his
physiognomy, when in repose, indicated the sympathising, yet, at the
same time, satirical character of one who won the affections, perhaps
unconsciously, of the amiable Princess Caroline, the favourite daughter
of George II.
A general air of languor, ill concealed by the most studied artifice of
countenance, and even of posture, characterizes Lord Hervey. He would
have abhorred robustness; for he belonged to the clique then called
Maccaronis; a set of fine gentlemen, of whom the present world would not
be worthy, tricked out for show, fitted only to drive out fading majesty
in a stage coach; exquisite in every personal appendage, too fine for
the common usages of society; _point-device_, not only in every curl and
ruffle, but in every attitude and step; men with full satin roses on
their shining shoes; diamond tablet rings on their forefingers; with
snuff-boxes, the worth of which might almost purchase a farm; lace
worked by the delicate fingers of some religious recluse of an
ancestress, and taken from an altar-cloth; old point-lace, dark as
coffee-water could make it; with embroidered waistcoats, wreathed in
exquisite tambour-work round each capricious lappet and pocket; with cut
steel buttons that glistened beneath the courtly wax-lights: with these
and fifty other small but costly characteristics that established the
reputation of an aspirant Maccaroni.
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