gentleman that visits at her papa's.


LETITIA

Say not a word more, Charlotte. Your intelligence
is so direct and well grounded, it is almost a pity that
it is not a piece of scandal.


CHARLOTTE

Oh! I am the pink of prudence. Though I cannot
charge myself with ever having discredited a tea-party
by my silence, yet I take care never to report any
thing of my acquaintance, especially if it is to their
credit,--discredit, I mean,--until I have searched to
the bottom of it. It is true, there is infinite pleasure
in this charitable pursuit. Oh! how delicious to go
and condole with the friends of some backsliding
sister, or to retire with some old dowager or maiden
aunt of the family, who love scandal so well that they
cannot forbear gratifying their appetite at the expense
of the reputation of their nearest relations! And then
to return full fraught with a rich collection of circum-
stances, to retail to the next circle of our acquaintance
under the strongest injunctions of secrecy,--ha, ha,
ha!--interlarding the melancholy tale with so many
doleful shakes of the head, and more doleful "Ah!
who would have thought it! so amiable, so prudent