Page:Ethel Churchill 1.pdf/187

Rh The whole party were silent for some minutes. After all, wit is something like sunshine in a frost—very sharp, very bright, but very cold and uncomfortable. The silence was broken by Lady Marchmont exclaiming,—"How fine the old trees are! there is something in the deep shadow that they fling upon the water, that reminds me of home." "I am not sure," answered the duke, " that I like to be reminded of any thing. Let me exist intensely in the present—the past and future should be omitted from my life by express desire." "What an insipid existence!" replied Henrietta,—"no hopes, and no fears." "Ah! forgive me," whispered Wharton, "if the present moment appear to me a world in itself." "I," said Lord Hervey, "do not dislike the past, present, nor future. Like woman, they have all behaved very well to me. The past has given me a great deal of pleasure; the present is with you; and as to the future,