"
"I thank your ladyship," replied the count; "but in this respect I
think I am safe, both from the lady and myself."
"How," asked Lady Sara, rather too eagerly, "is your heart?"--She
paused and looked down.
"No, madam!" replied he, sighing as deeply as herself: but with his
thoughts far from her and the object of their discourse; "I have no
place in my heart to give to love. Besides, the quality in which I
appear at Lady Dundas's would preclude the vainest man alive from
supposing that such notice from any lady there to him could be
possible. Therefore, I am safe, though I acknowledge my obligation to
your ladyship's caution."
Lady Sara was satisfied with the first part of this answer. It
declared that his heart was unoccupied; and, as he had accepted her
proffered friendship, she doubted not, when assisted by more frequent
displays of her fascinations, she could destroy its lambent nature,
and in the end light up in his bosom a similar fire to that which
consumed her own.
The unconscious object of all these devices began internally to
accuse his vanity of having been too fanciful in the formation of
suspicions which on a former occasion he had believed himself forced
to admit. Blushing at a quickness of perception his contrition now
denominated folly, he found himself at the bottom of Harley Street.
Lady Sara called her servant to walk nearer to her; and telling
Thaddeus she should expect him the next evening at Lady Tinemouth's,
wished him good-morning.
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