comparison. 'Sorry for her,' indeed! I'll bet my right arm it will
not be six weeks before she makes you infinitely sorrier for your
deluded self; and you will treat me to a new version of 'je me
regrette!' With your knowledge of this precious world and its holy
crew, I confess it seems farcical in the extreme that open-eyed you
can venture another experiment on human nature. Some fine morning
you will rub your eyes and find your acolyte non est; ditto, your
silver forks, diamonds, and gold spoons."

Edna felt the indignant blood burning in her cheeks, and as she
could not walk without assistance, and shrank from listening to a
conversation which was not intended for her ears, she coughed
several times to arrest the attention of the speakers, but
apparently without effect, for the son's voice again rose above the
low tones of the mother.

"Oh, carnival of shams! She is 'pious' you say? Then, I'll swear my
watch is not safe in my pocket, and I shall sleep with the key of my
cameo cabinet tied around my neck. A Paris police would not insure
your valuables or mine. The facts forbid that your pen-feathered
saint should decamp with some of my costly travel-scrapings! 'Pious'
indeed! 'Edna,' forsooth! No doubt her origin and morals are quite
as apocryphal as her name. Don't talk to me about 'her being
providentially thrown into your hands,' unless you desire to hear me
say things which you have frequently taken occasion to inform me
'deeply grieved' you. I dare say the little vagrant whines in what
she considers orthodox phraseology, that 'God tempers the wind to
the shorn lamb!' and, like some other pious people whom I have heard
canting, will saddle some Jewish prophet or fisherman with the
dictum, thinking that it sounds like the Bible, whereas Sterne said