He stiffly and wearily addressed to her the inquiry
how she liked London.
"I should like it monstrously if I were not moped up in school," she
answered. "So you have come back. How did you hurt your arm?" she
said, in the most provincial of dialects.
"In the fire, madam."
"What? In snatching your innamorata from the flames?"
"Not precisely," he said.
"Come, now, tell me; did she set the room a-fire?" demanded the young
lady. "Oh, you need not think to deceive me. My brother Mar's
coachman told my mamma's woman all about it, and how she was locked
up and ran away; but they have her fast enough now, after all her
tricks!"
"Who have? For pity's sake tell me, Lady Belle!"
Loving to tease, she exclaimed: "There, now, what a work to make
about a white-faced little rustic!"
"Your ladyship has not seen her."
"Have I not, though? I don't admire your taste."
"Is she in Queen's Square?"
"Do not you wish me to tell you where you can find your old faded
doll, with a waist just like a wasp, and an old blue sacque--not a
bit of powder in her hair?"
"Lady Belle, if you would have me for ever beholden to you---"
"The cap fits," she cried, clapping her hands. "Not a word to say
for her! I would not have such a beau for the world.
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