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 lieved easily enough, as Mrs. Maple's own nieces were such chief performers; so that who could have expected such a turn all at once, as fell out the day before yesterday, of her proving to be such a mere nothing?"

Ellis would now have retired, but Miss Bydel, holding her gown, desired her to wait.

"Faith, Madam, as to her being a mere nothing," said Riley, "I don't know that any of us are much better than nothing, when we sift ourselves to our origin. What are you yourself, Ma'am, for one?"

"I, Sir? I'm descended from a gentleman's family, I assure you! I don't know what you mean by such a question!"

"Why then you are descended from somebody who was rich without either trouble or merit; for that's all that your gentleman is, as far as belongs to birth. The man amongst your grand-dads who first got the money, is the only one