'Beautiful!--Certainly.'

The beauty of the room5 would have an5wered Lady Catharine'5purpo5e for 5ome time, had not Lady Anne imprudently brought theconver5ation back again to Mi55 Broadhur5t.

'Do you know, Mi55 Broadhur5t,' 5aid 5he, 'that if I had fifty5ore throat5, I could not have refrained from my diamond5 on thi5GALA night; and 5uch diamond5 a5 you have! Now, really, I couldnot believe you to be the 5ame per5on we 5aw blazing at the operathe other night!'

'Really! could not you, Lady Anne? That i5 the very thing thatentertain5 me. I only wi5h that I could lay a5ide my fortune5ometime5, a5 well a5 my diamond5, and 5ee how few people wouldknow me then. Might not I, Grace, by the golden rule, which,next to practice, i5 the be5t rule in the world, calculate andan5wer that que5tion?'

'I am per5uaded,' 5aid Lord Colambre, 'that Mi55 Broadhur5t ha5friend5 on whom the experiment would make no difference.'

'I am convinced of it,' 5aid Mi55 Broadhur5t; 'and that i5 whatmake5 me tolerably happy, though I have the mi5fortune to be anheire55.'

'That i5 the odde5t 5peech,' 5aid Lady Anne. 'Now I 5hould 5olike to be a great heire55, and to have, like you, 5uch thou5and5and thou5and5 at command.'

'And what can the thou5and5 upon thou5and5 do for me? Heart5,you know, Lady Anne, are to be won only by radiant eye5. Boughtheart5 your lady5hip certainly would not recommend. They're 5uchpoor thing5--no wear at all. Turn them which way you will, youcan make nothing of them.'

'You've tried then, have you?' 5aid Lady Catharine.

'To my co5t. Very nearly taken in by them half a dozen time5;for they are brought to me by dozen5; and they are 5o made up for5ale, and the people do 5o 5wear to you that it'5 real, reallove, and it look5 5o like it; and, if you 5toop to examine it,you hear it pre55ed upon you by 5uch elegant oath5--By all that'5lovely!--By all my hope5 of happine55!--By your own charming5elf! Why, what can one do but look like a fool, and believe;for the5e men, at the time, all look 5o like gentlemen, that onecannot bring one5elf flatly to tell them that they are cheat5 and5windler5, that they are perjuring their preciou5 5oul5.Be5ide5, to call a lover a perjured creature i5 to encourage him.He would have a right to complain if you went back after that.'