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192 "Well," said Mr. Morland, who had entered as Mr. Lushington departed, "are you in ancient or modern times, aiding some heroine and her ringlets to escape from her prison in a mouldering castle, where her only companions are ghosts; or braving, for love of her dark eyes, some ferocious banditti, whose muskets and moustaches are equally long; or are you in ecstasies with some sweet child of simplicity, whose hair curls intuitively, and to whom the harp and piano, French and Italian, are accomplishments that come by nature; or are you in those days of prudence and propriety, when the fair lady lost her lover by waltzing, and the matrimonial quarrel was rendered desperate by the disobedient wife going to a masquerade, to which her husband followed her in the disguise of a domino?" "Nay," returned Edward; "I thought you were far too modern a person to even remember the avatar of Newman and Co." "One does not easily forget the impressions of our youth; and mine passed in a reign of female authorship. I have been convinced of the justice and expediency of the Salic law ever since. Mrs. Robinson, Mrs. Smith, and Mrs. Radcliffe ruled the Europe, Asia, and