"Yes, you both forget this is the age of novelties; I am inclined to think could Solomon of old go to and fro some evening even through our British Isles, he would draw a pen through his time-honoured proverb of 'There is nothing new under the sun.'"
"Haughton tells me we shall scarcely know the old place; I confess should like to see it much, as it was full of loved associations."
"Parts of the Hall did really require the tools of the workman; but I hope my dear mother's rooms have been left undisturbed to any great extent. It is well for us who have not gone to the extreme in our craze for the novelties that those who have cannot plant their ladder to the sky and retint in aesthetic, or according to Oscar Wilde, colours."
"More letters, Lionel; your friends have not forgotten to remember you."
"No, nor my foes, for by every mail comes something anonymous, telling me kindly of my blackened reputation; but I should not trouble either of you so much above and beyond the petty scandal making and loving herd; but it is very wearying and wearing to me; I sometimes think I should leave you on account of it, and grapple with this difficulty at once and forever;" the moisture was in Vaura's eyes as he looked at her wearily with a long drawn sigh.
"You must not play into their hands, poor fellow, by seeming to notice their game," said Lady Esmondet, musingly, "until you see your own way clear to face them, by telling them and proving it a 'lie direct.'"
"Yes, dear Lady Esmondet, you are right; I shall not."
"And depend upon it," she continued, "unless in very exceptional cases, there is a woman at the bottom of every particle of scandal."
"What do you say to this charge, Miss Vernon?"
"In the words of one who has written much my sentiments I shall tell you. 'In days of yore, when the world was young and men were as brave and women fairer than they are to-day, when men to men were as faithful as Orestes to Pylades and women as sisters; when men and women had a simple faith which knew no fainting fits and believed as children in the fairy wand of the fairies, in the power over men's destinies of the gods and goddesses; in those days it came to pass that Juno, who was jealous of her husband, Jupiter, and quarrelled with him over his many escapades, one day said unto him: Behave thyself and I shall throw the apple of discord and scandal to earth, and it shall come to pass that amongst the mortals my sex, not yours (for to woman, not man, have we given the undying gift of curiosity), shall catch it as it falls, and it shall come to pass that as many as shall eat of it shall hunger and thirst for scandal, and finding none shall form themselves into clubs, and meet, not in the Temple of Truth, where Minos, son of Jupiter, sits as supreme judge, and where falsehood and calumny can never approach; but where she who has eaten most greedily of the apple shall throw most mud at all outside sisters who have not eaten, which the listeners with itching ears shall catch up, and repeat on the wings of the wind, and Boreas, Auster, Eurus, and Zephyrus shall carry the refrain over all the land, and so we, with the other immortals, watching the strife among mortals, shall learn to live happily together.' 'And what then, fair Juno? you forget it will surely come to pass that the women who eat shall transmit to their offspring an undying thirst for scandal and power of invention therein.' 'Amen, O all-wise Jupiter; but it shall come to pass also that she shall only transmit this taste to her own sex; so, n'importe, here goes,' and with a gay 'bon voyage,' she threw the apple to earth and us; you see, Captain Trevalyon; but thank the fates there are some of us who have not eaten."