Page:Lady Barbarity; a romance (IA ladybarbarityrom00snai).pdf/207

 that I began to admire the agility with which he generally contrived to have the laugh of me. The fact was that the rogue had an instinct that penetrated much too far. He knew better than I could tell him that he had caught a gaily-painted butterfly and had stuck it on a pin. His wanton fingers itched to twirl that pin to remind, I suppose, the gaudy, flimsy creature of its strange captivity.

"Bab," Miss Prue says, as I was about to retire to my chamber, "your papa trusts that I shall spend not less than a month at Cleeby. When he said that your aunt seemed to grow uneasy in her soul."

"Poor auntie," I says, sympathetically; "but Prue, I hope you know what a wretch you are? And the way you eat is positive immodesty. My aunt observed it. As for the way in which you played his lordship, it was too notorious for words. My aunt observed that also. In fact, in half an evening you have so stabbed the dear creature through her sex, that she will ne'er forgive you for it."

"Pray recite my errors," says he, flinging himself into an arm-chair, and stretching out his legs and crumpling his petticoats. "Your voice is so musical it will send me to sleep as promptly as a powder."

He shut his eyes at this and dropped his chin upon his necklace. Nodding to Mrs. Polly I went off to my dressing-room, followed by my maid. But on opening the door to step from one chamber to the other, we heard plain sounds of feet across