Notwithstanding this decision, so absolute in his exculpation, her
pure heart felt a trembling, secret resolve, "even for the sake of
the honor of human nature," (she whispered to herself), to observe
him so hereafter as to be convinced of the real worth of his
principles before she would allow any increase of the interest his
apparently reversed fate had created in her compassionate bosom.
What might be altogether the extent of that "reversed fate," she
could form no idea. For though she had heard, in common with the rest
of the general society, of the recent "melancholy fate of Poland!"
she knew little of its particulars, politics of every kind, and
especially about foreign places, being an interdicted subject in the
drawing-rooms of Sir Robert Somerset. Therefore the simply noble mind
of Mary thought more of the real nobility that might dwell in the
soul of this expatriated son of that country than of the possible
appendages of rank he might have left there.
With her mind full of these reflections, she awaited the farce
without observing it when it appeared. Indeed, none of the party knew
anything about the piece (to see which they had professedly come to
the theatre) excepting Miss Egerton, whose ever merry spirits had
enjoyed alone the humor of Totum in the play, and who now laughed
heartily, though unaccompanied, through the ridiculous whims of the
farce.
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