spirits!"

"Amazing you might well say, if you knew all," said Lady Delacour; and she
heaved a deep sigh, threw herself back in the carriage, let fall her mask,
and was silent. It was broad daylight, and Belinda had a full view of her
countenance, which was the picture of despair. She uttered not one
syllable more, nor had Miss Portman the courage to interrupt her
meditations till they came within sight, of Lady Singleton's, when Belinda
ventured to remind her that she had resolved to stop there and change
dresses before Marriott saw them.

"No, it's no matter," said Lady Delacour; "Marriott will leave me at the
last, like all the rest--'tis no matter." Her ladyship sunk back into her
former attitude; but after she had remained silent for some minutes, she
started up and exclaimed--

"If I had served myself with half the zeal that I have served the world, I
should not now be thus forsaken! I have sacrificed reputation, happiness,
every thing to the love of frolic:--all frolic will soon be at an end with
me--I am dying--and I shall die unlamented by any human being. If I were
to live my life over again, what a different life it should be!--What a
different person _I would be!_[1]--But it is all over now--I am dying."

Belinda's astonishment at these words, and at the solemn manner in which
they were pronounced, was inexpressible; she gazed at Lady Delacour, and
then repeated the word,--'dying!'--"Yes, dying!" said Lady Delacour.

"But you seem to me, and to all the world, in perfect health; and but half
an hour ago in perfect spirits," said Belinda.