"
Miss Dundas laughed, "like Hamlet's, they 'know not seems, but have
that within which passeth show!' Believe me, she is mad enough for
Bedlam; and of that I could soon convince you. I wonder how Lady
Shafto thought of inviting her, she quite stupefied our dinner."
"Well," cried Pembroke, "if those features announce madness, I shall
never admire a look of sense again."
"Bless us," exclaimed Miss Dundas, "you are wonderfully struck! Don't
you see she is old enough to be your mother?"
"That maybe," answered he, smiling; "nevertheless she is one of the
most lovely women I ever beheld." Come, tell me her name."
"I will satisfy you in a moment," rejoined Diana; "and then away with
your rhapsodies! She is the very Countess of Tinemouth, who brought
that vagabond foreigner to our house who would have run off with
Phemy!"
"Lady Tinemouth!" exclaimed Pembroke; "I never saw her before. My
ever-lamented mother knew her whilst I was abroad, and she esteemed
her highly. Pray introduce me to her!"
"Impossible," replied Diana, vexed at the turn his curiosity had
taken; "I wrote to her about the insidious wretch, and now we don't
speak."
"Then I will introduce myself," answered he. He was moving away, when
Miss Dundas caught his arm, and by various attempts at badinage and
raillery, held him in his place until the countess had made her
farewell curtsey to Lady Shafto, and the door was closed.
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