'"And is Sir Harry one too?" inquired I in a tone of horror; for to be a Papist in those days meant to belong to a religion proscribed by Act of Parliament, and hated by all good Church of England people.
'"I don't know exactly," said Algernon, "but he always does whatever she likes."
'Poor Sir Harry! I pitied him from my heart; and wondered more than ever how it happened that he should be the husband of such a sour-faced, disagreeable dame as Lady Mountfort.
'"I daresay she would like to make a Papist of me," he continued; "but she never shall; for my father was a Protestant, and I mean to be just like him."
'I thought this resolution sounded heroic, especially as I believed Lady Mountfort quite capable of inflicting a dungeon, bread and water, and perhaps even the rack, upon any unfortunate person whom she wished to convert; and I respected Algernon accordingly. He and I became very good friends before the evening was over, though I must say I infinitely preferred my first friend, Sir Harry, who danced with me several times—helped me out when I made mistakes, or appeared not to observe them—called me "Madame la Countesse"—and made himself so amusing, that I found myself many times regretfully wishing that I could have been married to him instead of to Algernon.
'Ah! well. People are not always quite so charming as one fancies they are; and I never liked Sir Harry so well after I discovered that it was he who brought about what I then considered as the greatest misfortune that could happen to me. He persuaded my father that I ought to be sent to school.
'Dear me! what floods of tears I shed when this dreadful fact was first announced to me. It was after all our guests had gone—when the gaieties of that exciting Christmas-time were over and done with—when I was, to all intents and purposes, only little Frances Dalrymple again, with all my short-lived splendour put away out of sight, like that wedding gown which nurse had packed so carefully in the great walnut chest, with dried lavender sprinkled between its shining folds.
'To be sent to school!—till the way to Taunton! I thought I might almost as well be sent to prison at once; and said so, in the midst of my tears, to mamma.
'"I shall never be allowed to run about, or play in the garden, or ride! Oh mamma, what will Hebe do without me?"
'Mamma almost smiled when I reached this climax, though she had looked grave enough just before; and seeing the smile, I went on in a more melancholy voice than ever: