"Conciliation.We know your situation in the borough.Mr.Scully's whole history, and, pardon me for saying so (but we men in office know everything), yours--"Lady Gorgon's ears and cheeks now assumed the hottest hue of crimson.She thought of her former passages with Scully, and of the days when--but never mind when: for she suffered her veil to fall, and buried her head in the folds of her handkerchief.Vain folds!
The wily little Mr.Crampton could see all that passed behind the cambric, and continued--"Yes, madam, we know the absurd hopes that were formed by a certain attorney twenty years since.We know how, up to this moment, he boasts of certain walks--""With the governess--we were always with the governess!" shrieked out Lady Gorgon, clasping her hands."She was not the wisest of women.""With the governess, of course," said Mr.Crampton, firmly."Do you suppose that any man dare breathe a syllable against your spotless reputation? Never, my dear madam; but what I would urge is this--you have treated your disappointed admirer too cruelly.""What! the traitor who has robbed us of our rights?""He never would have robbed you of your rights if you had been more kind to him.You should be gentle, madam; you should forgive him--you should be friends with him."
"With a traitor, never!"
"Think what made him a traitor, Lady Gorgon; look in your glass, and say if there be not some excuse for him? Think of the feelings of the man who saw beauty such as yours--I am a plain man and must speak--virtue such as yours, in the possession of a rival.By heavens, madam, I think he was RIGHT to hate Sir George Gorgon!
Would you have him allow such a prize to be ravished from him without a pang on his part?""He was, I believe, very much attached to me," said Lady Gorgon, quite delighted; "but you must be aware that a young man of his station in life could not look up to a person of my rank.""Surely not: it was monstrous pride and arrogance in Mr.Scully.