'Though I miss the sweet possessing,
'Tis a pleasure to adore;
Hope, the wretch's only blessing,
May in time procure me more.'"
"I cannot," returned Lady Marchmont, "answer by your next verse:—
'Constant courtship may obtain her,
When both wit and merit fail;
And the lucky minute gain her,
Fate and fancy will prevail.'
There is to me that insipidity about Lord Harvey, which always belongs to the forced and artificial. He takes as much pains to make up a character as Lady Clevedon does to make up her face!"
Lady Mary turned pettishly away; no woman likes anybody but herself to depreciate a lover; it is personally an ill compliment. But Lady Marchmont had little time to speculate on the causes of Lady Mary's petulance; for, at that moment, she felt Miss Churchill's clasp on her arm tighter, while the slight frame she supported trembled with agitation. Her quick eye detected the cause in a moment;
