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 speaking with ghastly solemnity), do you know the whole neighbourhood teams with rumours respecting you and a bankrupt tenant of yours—the foreigner Moore?"

"Does it?"

"It does. Your name is in every mouth."

"It honours the lips it crosses, and I wish to the gods it may purify them."

"Is it that person who has power to influence you?"

"Beyond any whose cause you have advocated."

"Is it he you will marry?"

"He is handsome, and manly, and commanding."

"You declare it to my face. The Flemish knave! The low trader!"

"He is talented, and venturous, and resolute. Prince is on his brow, and ruler in his bearing."

"She glories in it! She conceals nothing! No shame, no fear!"

"When we speak the name of Moore, shame should be forgotten and fear discarded: the Moores know only honour and courage."

"I say she is mad."

"You have taunted me till my blood is up. You have worried me till I turn again."

"That Moore is the brother of my son's tutor. Would you let the Usher call you Sister?"

Bright and broad shone Shirley's eye, as she fixed it on her questioner now.

"No: no. Not for a province of possession,—not for a century of life."

"You cannot separate the husband from his family."