What do you say to giving a ball here next? You're just the
man to get on with the ladies, if you could only be prevailed on to
wear your coat, and give up airing your tawny old arms in public."
"Don't, my dear sir! I particularly beg you won't," cried Valentine, as
Mat, apparently awakened to a sense of polite propriety by Zack's last
hint, began to unroll one of his tightly-tucked-up shirt-sleeves. "Pray
consult your own comfort, and keep your sleeves as they were--pray do!
As an artist, I have been admiring your arms from the professional
point of view ever since we first sat down to table. I never remember,
in all my long experience of the living model, having met with such a
splendid muscular development as yours."
Saying those words, Mr. Blyth waved his hand several times before his
host's arms, regarding them with his eyes partially closed, and his
head very much on one side, just as he was accustomed to look at his
pictures. Mat stared, smoked vehemently, folded the objects of
Valentine's admiration over his breast, and, modestly scratching his
elbows, looked at young Thorpe with an expression of utter
bewilderment. "Yes! decidedly the most magnificent muscular development
I ever remember studying," reiterated Mr.
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