Page:Lady Barbarity; a romance (IA ladybarbarityrom00snai).pdf/91

 glance or two, to obtain my way with any man, beginning with my papa, the Earl. And from that time, either in London or the country, whether the unresisting male was a marquis or a hosier, I had only to grow imperious to bend him to my will. But now old Politics, that square-toed Puritan, was here, and a pretty game he played. For the first time in my history I could not persuade, direct, or browbeat my papa, who was the best-brought-up parent of any girl's in England. And then there was this foppish officer, who would have died for me in Kensington, as inflexible as steel before my downright anger.

"Captain," says I, for the tenth time, "I never saw such monstrous fables as are put into these papers. And I give you warning, sir, that if these falsehoods are sent to London, and the soldiers come for my papa, the Earl, I will post to town myself, and tell the judges all about it privately."

"I suppose you mean the Government?" says he, smiling for some reason.

"Judges, Government, and King, I'll see 'em all!" cries I, fiercely, "for they're all tainted with the same disease, and that disease is Politics. And I'll accost every power in the kingdom rather than my lord shall go to prison in the room of me. And Captain, I would have you prepare yourself, as you are the person I shall call in evidence to prove 'twas I who let the prisoner out."

"Madam does me great honour," says the silken villain, "but all I know of last night is that the