Mr.Meiklewham, the writer, dwelt on the word _circumstances_, which he read with peculiar emphasis.
"Ah, poor lad!" he concluded, "I doubt he sits cheaper at Meg Dorts's chimney-corner than he could do with the present company." Doctor Quackleben, in the manner of a clergyman selecting a word from his text, as that which is to be particularly insisted upon, repeated in an under tone, the words, "_State of health ?_--umph--state of health ?--Nothing acute--no one has been sent for--must be chronic--tending to gout, perhaps .-- Or his shyness to society--light wild eye--irregular step--starting when met suddenly by a stranger, and turning abruptly and angrily away--Pray, Mr.Winterblossom, let me have an order to look over the file of newspapers--it's very troublesome that restriction about consulting them." "You know it is a necessary one, Doctor," said the president; "because so few of the good company read any thing else, that the old newspapers would have been worn to pieces long since." "Well, well, let me have the order," said the Doctor; "I remember something of a gentleman run away from his friends--I must look at the description .-- I believe I have a strait-jacket somewhere about the Dispensary." While this suggestion appalled the male part of the company, who did not much relish the approaching dinner in company with a gentleman whose situation seemed so precarious, some of the younger Misses whispered to each other--"Ah, poor fellow!--and if it be as the Doctor supposes, my lady, who knows what the cause of his illness may have been ?--His _spirits_ he complains of--ah, poor man!" And thus, by the ingenious commentaries of the company at the Well, on as plain a note as ever covered the eighth part of a sheet of foolscap, the writer was deprived of his property, his reason, and his heart, "all or either, or one or other of them," as is briefly and distinctly expressed in the law phrase.
In short, so much was said _pro_ and _con_, so many ideas started and theories maintained, concerning the disposition and character of the Misanthrope, that, when the company assembled at the usual time, before proceeding to dinner, they doubted, as it seemed, whether the expected addition to their society was to enter the room on his hands or his feet; and when "Mr.Tyrrel" was announced by Toby, at the top of his voice, the gentleman who entered the room had so very little to distinguish him from others, that there was a momentary disappointment.
The ladies, in particular, began to doubt whether the compound of talent, misanthropy, madness, and mental sensibility, which they had pictured to themselves, actually was the same with the genteel, and even fashionable-looking man whom they saw before them; who, though in a morning-dress, which the distance of his residence, and the freedom of the place, made excusable, had, even in the minute points of his exterior, none of the negligence, or wildness, which might be supposed to attach to the vestments of a misanthropic recluse, whether sane or insane.

As he paid his compliments round the circle, the scales seemed to fall from the eyes of those he spoke to; and they saw with surprise, that the exaggerations had existed entirely in their own preconceptions, and that whatever the fortunes, or rank in life, of Mr.Tyrrel might be, his manners, without being showy, were gentlemanlike and pleasing.

He returned his thanks to Mr.Winterblossom in a manner which made that gentleman recall his best breeding to answer the stranger's address in kind.

He then escaped from the awkwardness of remaining the sole object of attention, by gliding gradually among the company,--not like an owl, which seeks to hide itself in a thicket, or an awkward and retired man, shrinking from the society into which he is compelled, but with the air of one who could maintain with ease his part in a higher circle.

His address to Lady Penelope was adapted to the romantic tone of Mr.
Chatterly's epistle, to which it was necessary to allude.