'
'That is nonsense, Lady Mab.'
'Nothing give so much zest to admiration as novelty. A republican
charmer must be exciting after all the blasees habituees of the
London drawing-room.'
'How can you talk such nonsense, Mabel?' said Miss Cassewary.
'But it is so. I feel that people must be sick of seeing me. I
know I am very often sick of seeing them. Here is something
fresh,--and not only unlike, but so much more lovely. I quite
acknowledge that I may be jealous, but no one can say that I am
spiteful. I wish that some republican Adonis or Apollo would crop
up,--so that we might have our turn. But I don't think the
republican gentlemen are equal to the republican ladies. Do you,
Lord Silverbridge?
'I haven't thought about it.'
'Mr Sprottle for instance.'
'I have not the pleasure of knowing Mr Sprottle.'
'Now we've been around the haycocks, and really, Lord
Silverbridge, I don't think we have gained much by it. Those
forced marches never do any good.' And so they parted.
He was thinking with a bitter spirit of the ill-result of the
morning's work when he again found himself close to Miss barbarian
in the crowd of departing people on the terrace.
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