"O dear! what a move was there!" cried Lady Catherine. "Miss
Broadhurst is so entertaining to-night, notwithstanding her sore
throat, that one can positively attend to nothing else. And she talks
of love and lovers too with such _connoissance de fait_--counts her
lovers by dozens, tied up in true lovers' knots!"

"Lovers!--no, no! Did I say lovers?--suitors I should have said.
There's nothing less like a lover, a true lover, than a suitor, as all
the world knows, ever since the days of Penelope. Dozens!--never had a
lover in my life!--And fear, with much reason, I never shall have one
to my mind."

"My lord, you've given up the game," cried Lady Catherine; "but you
make no battle."

"It would be so vain to combat against your ladyship," said Lord
Colambre, rising, and bowing politely to Lady Catherine, but turning
the next instant to converse with Miss Broadhurst.

"But when I talked of liking to be an heiress," said Lady Anne, "I was
not thinking of lovers."

"Certainly.--One is not always thinking of lovers, you know," added
Lady Catherine.

"Not always," replied Miss Broadhurst. "Well, lovers out of the
question on all sides, what would your ladyship buy with the thousands
upon thousands?"

"Oh, every thing, if I were you," said Lady Anne.