"
"Such a man's dislike," rejoined Mary, "is the highest encomium he
can bestow. I never yet heard him speak well of any person who did
not resemble himself."
"And he is not consistent even there," resumed the viscount: "I am
not sure I have always heard him speak in the gentlest terms of Miss
Dundas. Yet, on that I cannot quite blame him; for, on my honor, she
provokes me beyond any woman breathing."
"Many women," replied Mary, smiling, "would esteem that a flattering
instance of power."
"And, like everything that flatters," returned he, "it would tell a
falsehood. A shrew can provoke a man who detests her. As to Miss
Dundas, notwithstanding her parade of learning, she generally
espouses the wrong side of the argument; and I may say with somebody,
whose name I have forgotten, that any one who knows Diana Dundas
never need be at a loss for a woman to call impertinent."
"You are not usually so severe, my lord!"
"I am not usually so sincere, Miss Beaufort," answered he; "but I see
you think for yourself, therefore I make no hesitation in speaking
what I think--to you."
His auditor bowed her head sportively but modestly. Lady Dundas at
that moment beckoned him across the room. She compelled him to sit
down to whist. He cast a rueful glance at Mary, and took a seat
opposite to his costly partner.
"Lord Berrington is a very worthy young man," observed the clergyman
to whom at the beginning of the evening Miss Beaufort had resigned
her chair; "I presume, madam, you have been honoring him with your
conversation?"
"Yes," returned Mary, noticing the benign countenance of the speaker;
"I have not had the pleasure of long knowing his lordship, but what I
have seen of his character is highly to his advantage.
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