Page:Lady Barbarity; a romance (IA ladybarbarityrom00snai).pdf/20

 I admitted that I was.

"And do you know that I have heard such a tale of you from town, my pretty lady? You have turned the heads of all the men, I understand."

"Men!" said I, "suits of clothes, papa, and periwigs!"

"Well, well," says he, in his tender tone, and bowing, "let us deal gently with their lapses. 'Tis a sufficient punishment for any man, I'm sure, to be stricken with your poor opinion. But listen, child, for I have something serious to say."

Listen I did, you can be certain, for though I had known my papa, the Earl, for a considerable time, 'twas the first occasion that I had heard him mention serious matters. And as I pondered on the nature of the surprise he had in store, my eyes fell upon an open book, beside his tray of chocolate. It was a Bible. This caused me to look the more keenly at the Earl, and I saw that in ten months ten years had been laid upon his countenance. Even his powder could not hide its seams and wrinkles now. Crow's feet had gathered underneath his eyes, and his padded shoulders were taken with a droop that left his stately coat in creases.

"If I exercise great care," says he, with a bland deliberation, "old Paradise assures me that I yet have time to set my temporal affairs in order. And you, my dearest Bab, being chief part of 'em, I thought it well to mention this immediately to you. As for my spiritual affairs, old Paradise is