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Vivian Grey: Vicarage

The rumor of the arrival of "a new fellow" circulated rapidly through the inmates of the Vicarage, and the fifty young rascals were preparing to quiz the newcomer when the school-room door opened and Mr. Dallas, accompanied by Vivian Grey, entered. "A dandy, by Jove!" whispered one. "What a knowing set-out," squeaked a second; "Mummy sick," growled a third; this last exclamation was, however, a scandalous libel, for certainly no being ever stood in a pedagogue's presence with more perfect sang-froid and with a bolder front than did, at this moment, Vivian Grey.

The young savages at Burnsley Vicarage had caught a Tartar; in a very few days Vivian was decidedly the most popular fellow in the school; "he was so dashing! so devilish good-tempered, so completely up to everything!" Vivian developed talents of a literary nature which inspired great admiration among his fellow-pupils and also in the mind of Mr. Dallas. But there are other attributes which will win the admiration of a school of real boys; and this proved to be the case at Burnsley Vicarage, when, as so often happens, some of the boys, jealous of Vivian's popularity, found, as they thought, an opportunity to triumph over him. There was trouble between the followers of Vivian and those of Mallet, the head usher; one of the latter made an insulting remark to Vivian which he promptly resented and the battle was on, and Vivian Grey showed that he could fight as well as write. Vivian's chief characteristic was a burning ambition; with this he had a great amount of courage and self-assurance, and besides these attributes, tact combined with a pleasing personal presence and manners. At a dinner in his father's home, when Vivian was still a very young man, he made the acquaintance of the Marquess of Carabas. He came to the rescue of the marquess and his opinions in an after-dinner discussion, during which he quoted a whole passage from Bolingbroke in support of the marquess; this was challenged by Vivian's father, who knew his son's habit of quoting the opinions of others, which were more often his own opinions put into the mouth of some one else; so Mr. Grey, looking smilingly at his son, remarked, "Vivian, my dear, can you tell me in what work of Bolingbroke I can find the eloquent passage you have just quoted?" "Ask Mr. Hargrave, sir," replied the son, with perfect coolness; then turning to Mr. Hargrave he said, "You know you are reputed to be the most profound political student in the House, and more intimately acquainted than any other with the works of Bolingbroke."

Mr. Hargrave knew no such thing, but he was a weak man, and, seduced by the compliment, he was afraid to prove himself unworthy of it by confessing his ignorance of the passage.

Vivian carried this same self-assurance into politics and won many triumphs by tactics of the kind. He attached himself to the marquess, and was responsible for his entering politics, spending much time at the estate of the marquess, "Chateau Desir," with large house parties of famous persons, some interesting to him and some otherwise.

Among the guests at one time was a relative of the marquess, a young matron, Mrs. Felix Lorraine, who was much impressed with Vivian and tried her charms upon him, but to no avail; then in pique she attempted intrigue to make trouble between the marquess and Vivian, which she came very near to accomplishing.