In the course of conversation at dinner, on the day Thaddeus had been
expected by Lady Tinemouth, in a tone of pleasure she mentioned that
she had conferred a great favor on her young cousins, the Misses
Dundas, by having prevailed on Mr. Constantine to undertake the
trouble of teaching them German. Lady Sara could not conceal her
vexation, nor her wonder at Lady Tinemouth's thinking of such a
thing; and she uttered something like angry contempt at acquiescence,
while inwardly she hated her former old friend for having made the
proposal.
Miss Egerton laughed at the scrape into which Lady Tinemouth had
brought his good nature, and declared she would tell him next time
she saw him what a mulish pair of misses he had presumed to manage.
It was the youngest of these misses that excited Lady Sara's
displeasure. Euphemia Dundas was very pretty; she had a large fortune
at her disposal; and what might not such united temptations effect on
the mind of a man exposed every day to her habitual flirtation? Stung
with jealousy, Lady Sara caught at a slight intimation of his
possibly coming in before the evening should close. Rallying her
smiles, she resolved to make one more essay on his relapsed
insensibility, before she beheld him enter scenes so likely to
extinguish her hopes. Hopes of what? She never allowed herself to
inquire. She knew that she never had loved her husband, that now she
detested him, and was devoted to another.
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