"So that gentleman, so free and easy in his manners, is not your husband?"

"Heaven forbid! Do you think I should be so gay if he were? But, pooh!
what can you know of married life? No!" she continued, with a pretty air
of mock dignity; "I am the Belvidera, the Calista, of the company; above
all control, all husbanding, and reaping thirty-three shillings a week."

"But are you above lovers as well as husbands?" asked Percy with a rakish
air, borrowed from Saville.

"Bless the boy! No: but then my lovers must be at least as tall, and at
least as rich, and, I am afraid, at least as old, as myself."

"Don't frighten yourself, my dear," returned Percy; "I was not about to
make love to you."

"Were you not? Yes, you were, and you know it. But why will you not sup
with us?"

"Why not, indeed?" thought Percy, as the idea, thus more enticingly put
than it was at first, pressed upon him. "If _you_ ask me," he said, "I
will."

"I _do_ ask you, then," said the actress; and here the hero of the company
turned abruptly round with a theatrical start, and exclaimed, "To sup or
not to sup? that is the question."

"To sup, sir," said Godolphin.