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ROMANCE AND REALITY.
85

and lemon lozenges, who should she see examining the sentiments and seals but Mr. Boyne Sillery; and whose conversation should she overhear but that passing between him and a young guardsman, who was bestowing on him his idleness and his company?

"Pray," said Captain Sinclair, "who is that pretty girl whose peace of mind you have been annihilating the last night or two?"

"In good truth, I hardly know—a Miss Arundel—a wood-nymph, the daughter of either a country squire or a clergyman—equipped, I suppose, by a mortgage on either the squire's corn-fields, or the parson's glebe land—sent with her face for her fortune to see what can be done during a London season in the way of Cupid and conquest."

"I am at a loss," said his companion, "to understand your devotion."

"It was a mixture of lassitude and experiment, carried into execution by a little Christian charity: she appeared entirely neglected—and your nobodies are so very grateful! But I find the fatigue too much: moreover, one should never let pleasure interfere with business. Last night, at the Opera, one of those crushes which bewilder the uninitiated, did