The next morning, when Miss Beaufort saw the study door opened for
her entrance, she found Mr. Constantine at his station, literally
baited between Miss Dundas and her honorable lover. At such moments
Mary appeared the kindest of the kind. She loved to see Constantine
smile; and whenever she could produce that effect, by turning the
spleen of these polite sneerers against themselves, his smiles, which
ever entered her heart, afforded her a banquet for hours after his
departure.
Mary drew out her netting, (which was a purse for Lady Tinemouth,)
and taking a seat beside Euphemia, united with her to occupy his
attention entirely, that he might not catch even one of those
insolent glances which were passing between Lascelles and a new
visitant the pretty lady Hilliars.
This lady seemed to take extreme pleasure in accosting Thaddeus by
the appellation of "Friend," "My good man," "Mr. What's-your-name,"
and similar squibs of insult, with which the prosperous assail the
unfortunate. Such random shots they know often inflict the most
galling wounds.
However, "Friend," "My good man," and "Mr. What's-your-name,"
disappointed this lady's small artillery of effect. He seemed
invulnerable both to her insolence and to her affectation; for to be
thought a wit, by even Miss Dundas's emigrant tutor, was not to be
despised; though at the very moment in which she desired his
admiration, she supposed her haughtiness had impressed him with a
proper sense of his own meanness and a high conception of her
dignity.
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