"Well, Ursula."

"I tell you what, brother, if you ever sinivate again that I could
be the third thing, so help me duvel! I'll do you a mischief. By
my God I will!"

"Well, Ursula, I assure you that I shall sinivate, as you call it,
nothing of the kind about you. I have no doubt, from what you have
said, that you are a very paragon of virtue--a perfect Lucretia;
but--"

"My name is Ursula, brother, and not Lucretia: Lucretia is not of
our family, but one of the Bucklands; she travels about
Oxfordshire; yet I am as good as she any day."

"Lucretia; how odd! Where could she have got that name? Well, I
make no doubt, Ursula, that you are quite as good as she, and she
as her namesake of ancient Rome; but there is a mystery in this
same virtue, Ursula, which I cannot fathom; how a thief and a liar
should be able, or indeed willing, to preserve her virtue is what I
don't understand. You confess that you are very fond of gold.
Now, how is it that you don't barter your virtue for gold
sometimes? I am a philosopher, Ursula, and like to know
everything. You must be every now and then exposed to great
temptation, Ursula; for you are of a beauty calculated to captivate
all hearts. Come, sit down and tell me how you are enabled to
resist such a temptation as gold and fine clothes?"

"Well, brother," said Ursula, "as you say you mean no harm, I will
sit down beside you, and enter into discourse with you; but I will