"
This speech from Euphemia (who had always been so declared an enemy
to pedantry as to affirm that she learnt German merely because it was
the fashion) would have awakened Miss Dundas to some suspicion of a
covert design, had she not been in the habit of taking down such
large draughts of adulation, that whenever herself was the subject,
she gave it full confidence. Euphemia seldom administered these doses
but to serve particular views; and seeing in the present case that a
little flattery was necessary, she felt no compunction in sacrificing
sincerity to the gratification of caprice. Weak in understanding, she
had fed on works of imagination, until her mind loathed all kinds of
food. Not content with devouring the elegant pages of Mackenzie,
Radcliffe, and Lee, she flew with voracious appetite to sate herself
on the garbage of any circulating library that fell in her way.
The effects of such a taste were exhibited in her manners. Being very
pretty, she became very sentimental. She dressed like a wood nymph,
and talked as if her soul were made of love and sorrow. Neither of
these emotions had she ever really felt; but in idea she was always
the victim of some ill-fated passion, fancying herself at different
periods in love with one or other of the finest young men in her
circle.
By this management she kept faithful to her favorite principle that
"love was a want of her soul!" As it was the rule of her life, it
ever trembled on her tongue, ever introduced the confession of any
new attachment, which usually happened three times a year, to her
dear friend Miss Arabella Rothes.
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