Hardie, and perhaps bring him on faster. Her decision once
made on the above grounds, she conveyed it in characteristic colors.
"No, my love; where I give my affection, there I give my confidence. I
have your word not to encourage this gentleman's addresses, so why
hurt your uncle's feelings by closing my door to his friend? It would
be an ill compliment to you as well as to Mr. Fountain; he shall
come."
Her postscript to Mr. Fountain ran thus:
"Your friend would have been welcome independently of the foreign
costumes; but as I am a very candid little woman, I may as well tell
you that, now you _have_ excited my curiosity, he will be a great
deal more welcome with them than without them."
And here I own that I, the simpleminded, should never have known all
that was signified in these words but for the comment of John
Fountain, Esq.
"It is all right, Talboys," said he. "My bait has taken. You must pack
up these gimcracks at once and send them off, or she'll smile like a
marble Satan in your face, and stick you full of pins and needles."
The next day Mr. Bazalgette walked into the room, haughtily overlooked
the pyramid of dresses, and asked Lucy to come downstairs and see
something. She put her work aside, and went down with him, and lo! two
ponies--a cream-colored and a bay. "Oh, you loves!" cried the virgin,
passionately, and blushed with pleasure. Her heart was very
accessible--to quadrupeds.
"Now you are to choose which of these you will have.
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