Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 4).djvu/72

 "You will recollect, Madam," answered he, 'that I never was permitted to walk, but when Heli was with me; and the side where the ladies resided, was far distant from the apartments I inhabited; therefore I cannot, with any plausibility, violate truth, by boasting of ladies favours; indeed I have no obligations of that kind."

"How!" returned she; "are you so vain as to consider our friendship and good opinion so entirely your due, that it confers neither favour nor obligation?" "Pardon me, Madam, to deserve the friendship of two such ladies, would be my highest ambition; and to obtain it, I must consider as an honour that will gratify my vainest wishes."

"You have extorted a compliment, my dear Louisa," said Miss D'Alenberg, "and now I hope are satisfied."

Ferdinand ought to have replied to this "extorted," but he was out of spirits, and gladly availed himself of some trivial observation of young Reiberg's, to change the subject. This evasion passed not unobserved,