world does not overlaud Lady Erpingham?"

"No: she is what Medea would have been, if innocent--full of majesty, and
yet of sweetness. It is the face of a queen of some three thousand years
back. I could have worshipped her."

"My little Fanny, you are a strange creature. Methinks you have a dash of
poetry in you."

"Nobody who has not written poetry could ever read my character," answered
Fanny, with naivete, yet with truth. "Yet you have not much of the ideal
about you, pretty one."

"No; because I was so early thrown on myself, that I was forced to make
independence my chief good. I soon saw that if I followed my heart to and
fro, wherever it led me, I should be the creature of every breath--the
victim of every accident: I should have been the very soul of romance;
lived on a smile; and died, perhaps, in a ditch at last. Accordingly, I
set to work with my feelings, and pared and cut them down to a convenient
compass. Happy for me that I did so! What would have become of me if,
years go, when I loved Godolphin, I had thrown the whole world of my heart
upon him?"

"Why, he has generosity; he would not have deserted you."

"But I should have wearied him," answered Fanny; "and that would have been
quite enough for me. But I did love him well, and purely--(ah! you may
smile!)--and disinterestedly. I was only fortified in my resolution not
to love any one too much, by perceiving that he had _affection_ but no
_sympathy_ for me. His nature was different from mine. I am _woman_ in