"Mrs. Lyndsay, yes,--dear Lady Montfort's mother. I can't say I pitied
her, though I was sorry for Lady Montfort. How Mrs. Lyndsay ever took in
Montfort for Caroline I can't conceive! How she had the face to think of
it! He, a mere youth at the time! Kept secret from all his family, even
from his grandmother,--the darkest transaction. I don't wonder that he
never forgave it."

FIRST LISTENER.--"Caroline has beauty enough to--"

LADY SELINA (interrupting).--"Beauty, of course: no one can deny that.
But not at all suited to such a position, not brought up to the sort of
thing. Poor Montfort! he should have married a different kind of woman
altogether,--a woman like his grandmother, the last Lady Montfort.
Caroline does nothing for the House,--nothing; has not even a child,
--most unfortunate affair."

SECOND LISTENER.--"Mrs. Lyndsay was very poor, was not she? Caroline, I
suppose, had no opportunity of forming those tastes and habits which are
necessary for--for--"

LADY SELINA (helping the listener).--"For such a position and such a
fortune. You are quite right, my dear. People brought up in one way
cannot accommodate themselves to another; and it is odd, but I have
observed that people brought up poor can accommodate themselves less to
being very rich than people brought up rich can accommodate themselves to
being very poor. As Carr says, in his pointed way, 'It is easier to
stoop than to climb.' Yes; Mrs. Lyndsay was, you know, a daughter of
Seymour Vipont, who was for so many years in the Administration, with a
fair income from his salary, and nothing out of it. She married one of
the Scotch Lyndsays,--good family, of course, with a very moderate