DANDY*O*RAMA - Sir Ferdinand Armine, the younger (Disraeli)

At ten years of age he was one of those spirited and at the same time docile boys, who seem to combine with the wild and careless grace of childhood the thoughtfulness and self-discipline of maturer age. In the village, where he was idolised, they called him 'the little prince;' he was so gentle and so generous, so kind and yet so dignified in his
demeanour. He developed a taste for the fine arts. It was his mother who taught him not only to sing, but to dance. Ferdinand could not have found a more skilful instructor than his father, a consummate sportsman, and who, like all his ancestors, was remarkable for his finished horsemanship and the certainty of his aim. Ferdinand Armine was early and ever taught to be sincere, dutiful, charitable, and just.
With great gifts of nature, with lively and highly cultivated talents, and a most affectionate and disciplined temper, he was adored by the friends. There were moments when Ferdinand Armine loved to be alone.

Nature, that had endowed him with a fiery imagination and a reckless courage. Ferdinand Armine was, in truth, a singular blending of the daring and the soft. He asked himself if he had not inherited the energies with the name of his grandsire, and if their exertion might not yet revive the glories of his line. He felt within him alike the power and the will.

Young, lively, kind, accomplished, good-looking, and well-bred, Ferdinand Armine had in him all the elements of popularity. Never was a person so popular as Ferdinand Armine. He was the best rider among them, and the deadliest shot; and he soon became an oracle at the billiard-table, and a hero in the racquet-court. His refined education, however, fortunately preserved him from the fate of many other lively youths: he did not degenerate into a mere hero of sports and brawls, the genius of male revels, the arbiter of roistering suppers, and the Comus of a club. Excited by his situation, Ferdinand was soon tempted to incur expenses which his income did not justify. The facility of credit afforded him not a moment to pause; everything he wanted was furnished him.

No one had been educated with more care than Ferdinand Armine; in no heart had stricter precepts of moral conduct ever been instilled. But he was lively and impetuous, with a fiery imagination, violent passions, and a daring soul. Sanguine he was as the day. He broke into profuse expenditure; he purchased a yacht; he engaged a villa; his racing-horses and his servants exceeded all other establishments, except the Governor's, in breeding, in splendour, and in number.

No one, indeed, who knew Ferdinand Armine could deny that he was a rare being.

»'Oh! my dear, I met a charming man there, I forget his name, but the most distinguished person I ever met; so very handsome, so very witty, and with blood in his veins«, says Lady Bellair about Ferdinand Armine.

»The truth is, Captain Armine has been wild, very wild indeed; a little of a roué; but then such a fine young man, so very handsome, so truly distinguished«, added Mrs. Montgomery Floyd.

Benjamin Disraeli: Henrietta Temple