"Throw the letter into the street, Phemy!" cried Miss Dundas,
affecting sudden terror; "who knows but what it is a fever the man
has got, and we may all catch our deaths."
"Heaven forbid!" exclaimed Mary, in a voice of real alarm; but it was
for Thaddeus--not fear of any infection which the paper might bring
to herself.
"Lascelles, take away that filthy scrawl from Phemy. How can you be
so headstrong, child?" cried Diana, snatching the letter from her
sister and throwing it from the window. "I declare you are sufficient
to provoke a saint."
"Then you may keep your temper, Di," returned Euphemia, with a sneer;
"you are far enough from that title."
Miss Dundas made a very angry reply, which was retaliated by another;
and a still more noisy and disagreeable altercation might have taken
place had not a good-humored lad, a brother-in-law of Lady Hilliars,
in hopes of calling off the attention of the sisters, exclaimed,
"Bless me, Miss Dundas, your little dog has pulled a folded sheet of
paper from under that stand of flowers! Perhaps it may be of
consequence."
"Fly! Take it up, George!" cried Lady Hilliars; "Esop will tear it to
atoms whilst you are asking questions."
After a chase round the room, over chairs and under tables, George
Hilliars at length plucked the devoted piece of paper out of the
dog's mouth; and as Miss Beaufort was gathering up her working
materials to leave the room, he opened it and cried, in a voice of
triumph, "By Jove, it is a copy of verses!"
"Verses!" demanded Euphemia, feeling in her pocket, and coloring;
"let me see them.
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