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252 Every body was delighted with the singing; and, in paying his compliments to the performers, more especially the bride, the marquis took occasion to converse with her as far as was possible, and convince himself that the daughter of a selfish, extravagant, and sophisticated mother might be artless and modest, sensible and upright. Helen, Georgiana, and two other young ladies sung also; and it appeared that everybody was much more pleased than people are in general with any lions, who are also exotics, to whom they condescend to be attentive, but refuse to be friendly; rejoicing when any little conventional informality reduces the genius, whose patent of nobility the Creator himself has bestowed, below the level of fashion, and substituting ridicule for admiration, the smile of the scorner for the approval of veneration. is a line that should be as a fillet bound round the brow—a philactory embroidered on the garments of every son and daughter of Adam distinguished by the possession of that sacred gift, which, whether used or abused, applauded in itself or derided in its possessor, is the highest and the most inalienable distinction humanity ever has or ever can be gifted with, whether bestowed on the highest or the humblest being, in the great mass to which we all belong. We by no means mean to say that Lady Anne's happy and pleasant little party would not have received a new impetus if