"Perhaps I do deserve the reproach. Oh, Lumley, how I despise all that
I see and hear!"

"What, even the Duke of ------?"

"Yes, I fear even the Duke of ------ is no exception!"

"Your father will go mad if he hear you."

"My father!--my poor father!--yes, he thinks the utmost that I, Florence
Lascelles, am made for, is to wear a ducal coronet, and give the best
balls in London."

"And pray what was Florence Lascelles made for?"

"Ah! I cannot answer the question. I fear for Discontent and Disdain."

"You are an enigma--but I will take pains and not rest till I solve
you."

"I defy you."

"Thanks--better defy than despise.

"Oh, you must be strangely altered, if I can despise you."

"Indeed! what do you remember of me?"

"That you were frank, bold, and therefore, I suppose, true!--that you