Page:Shirley (1849 Volume 3).djvu/273

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MATTERS MAKE SLOW PROGRESS.
261

this bounteous fall of hazel curls is an excellent little thinking machine, most accurate in its working: it boasts a correct, steady judgment, inherited from 'mama,' I suppose."

"And I quite approve, and mama was charmed."

"'Mama' charmed! Mrs. Pryor. It can't be romantic then?"

"It is romantic, but it is also right."

"Tell me, Cary. Tell me out of pity: I am too weak to be tantalized."

"You shall be tantalized: it will do you no harm: you are not so weak as you pretend."

"I have twice this evening had some thoughts of falling on the floor at your feet."

"You had better not: I shall decline to help you up."

"And worshipping you downright. My mother was a Roman Catholic; you look like the loveliest of her pictures of the Virgin: I think I will embrace her faith, and kneel and adore."

"Robert, Robert, sit still; don't be absurd: I will go to Hortense, if you commit extravagances."

"You have stolen my senses: just now nothing will come into my mind but 'les litanies de la sainte Vièrge. Rose céleste, reine des Anges!'"

"'Tour d'ivoire, maison d'or': is not that the jargon? Well, sit down quietly, and guess your riddle."

"But, 'mama' charmed! There's the puzzle."

"I'll tell you what mama said when I told her: 'Depend upon it, my dear, such a choice will make the happiness of Miss Keeldar's life.'"