"
Mary, pale and trembling at the scandal his last words insinuated,
opened her lips to speak, when Miss Dundas (whose angry eyes darted
from her sister to her lover) exclaimed, "Mr. Lascelles, I know not
what you mean. The subject you have taken up is below my discussion;
yet I must confess, if Euphemia has ever disgraced herself so far as
to be seen walking with a schoolmaster, she deserves all you have
said."
"And why might I not walk with him, sister?" asked the poor culprit,
suddenly recovering from her confusion, and looking pertly up; "who
knew that he was not a gentleman?"
"Everybody, ma'am," interrupted Lascelles; "and when a young woman of
fashion condescends to be seen equalizing herself with a creature
depending on his wits for support, she is very likely to incur the
contempt of her acquaintance and the censure of her friends."
"She is, sir," said Mary, holding down her indignant heart and
forcing her countenance to appear serene; "for she ought to know that
if those men of fashion, who have no wit to be either their support
or ornament, did not proscribe talents from their circle, they must
soon find 'the greater glory dim the less.'"
"True, madam," cried Lord Berrington, who, having entered during the
contest, had stood unobserved until this moment; "and their gold and
tinsel would prove but dross and bubble, if struck by the Ithuriel
touch of Merit when so advocated.
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