Page:Romance & Reality 2.pdf/166

164 the study of one branch of the fine arts for the sake of another. You must leave the picture for the mirror—be most devout in the sacrifice you offer to the Graces to-day." "What conquest," replied Emily, smiling, "do you meditate for me?" "What conquest? What a young-lady question! None: this is an affair of glory, not of sentiment. Mr. Lara Trevyllian dines here to-day. You must dress for his suffrage, not his heart. Most persons are born with a genius for some one thing: Mr. Lara Trevyllian is born with a genius for two;—he piques himself on his knowledge of gastronomy, and his knowledge of women." Edward Lorraine. "I should be more inclined to defer to his knowledge of the science than of the sex." Lady Mandeville.—"Ah, now—to use an expression of his own—'you men never will allow any merit to each other.'"

Edward Lorraine.—"It was not with a view to detract from his powers of feminine analysation that I spoke; but because I think that either man's or woman's character stand in a relative position to each other, like the covered statue of Isis, whose veil mortal hand hath not