upon fiction when the convenience of it has taken the place of pleasure),
that they had need to exalt his eloquence, for a cloak to their conduct;
and doing it, they fell into a habit of yielding to him; they
disintegrated under him; rules, principles, morality, were shaken to some
confusion. And still proceeding thus, they now and then glanced back,
more wonderingly than convicted sinners upon their days of early
innocence, at the night when successfully they withstood him. They who
had doubted of the rightness of letting Victor's girl come into collision
with two clerical gentlemen, one of whom was married, permitted him now
to bring the Hon. Dudley Sowerby to their house, and make appointments
to meet Mr. Dudley Sowerby under a roof that sheltered a young lady,
evidently the allurement to the scion of aristocracy; of whose family Mr.
Stuart Rem had spoken in the very kindling hushed tones, proper to the
union of a sacerdotal and an English citizen's veneration.

How would it end? And if some day this excellent Mr. Dudley Sowerby
reproached them! He could not have a sweeter bride, one more truly a
lady in education and manners; but the birth! the child's name! Their
trouble was emitted in a vapour of interjections. Very perplexing was it
for the good ladies of strict principles to reflect, as dimly they did,
that the concrete presence of dear Nesta silenced and overcame objections
to her being upon earth. She seemed, as it were, a draught of
redoubtable Nature inebriating morality. But would others be similarly
affected? Victor might get his release, to do justice to the mother: it
would not cover the child. Prize as they might the quality of the Radnor
blood (drawn from the most ancient of original Britain's princes), there
was also the Cantor blood for consideration; and it was old, noble,
proud. Would it be satisfied in matching itself with great wealth,
a radiant health, and the good looks of a young flower? For the sake
of the dear girl, the ladies hoped that it would; and they enlarged the