"
On being invited to come at once to the latter, Lucy hesitated. "Would
not that be unamiable on my part? Mr. Talboys has just paid me the
highest compliment a gentleman can pay a lady; it is for me to decline
him courteously, not abuse him to his friend and representative."
"No humbug, Lucy, if you please; I am in no humor for it."
"We should all be savages without a _little_ of it."
"I am waiting."
"Then pledge me your word of honor no word of what I now say to the
disadvantage of poor Mr. Talboys shall ever reach him."
"You may take your oath of that."
"Then he is a detractor, a character I despise."
"Who does he detract from? I never heard him."
"From all his superiors--in other words, from everybody he meets. Did
you ever know him fail to sneer at Mr. Hardie?"
"Oh, that is the offense, is it?"
"No, it is the same with others; there, the other day, Mr. Dodd joined
us on horseback. He did not dress for the occasion. He had no straps
on. He came in a hurry to have our society, not to cut a dash. But
there was Mr. Talboys, who can only do this one thing well, and who,
thanks to his servant, had straps on, sneering the whole time at Mr.
Dodd, who has mastered a dozen far more difficult and more honorable
accomplishments than putting on straps and sitting on horses. But he
is always backbiting and sneering; he admires nothing and nobody."
"He has admired you ever since he saw you."
"What! has he never sneered at me?"
"Never! ungrateful girl, never.
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