"Yes, yes; you, at all events, are not a soulless woman," said
Bertram, earnestly.
"There are many of us, Mr. Bertram," said Lady Esmondet, "who actually never think of anything old unless it be our old relations."
"And then, only, if they are on the top rung," laughed Douglas.
"You people are for once forgetting our old china," said Vaura, gaily; "our love's all blue."
"The governor told me to ask you, Bertram," said Douglas, "how you get on with Royalton at Saint Dydimus?"
"We don't get on at all; he has no more inclination for the church, than I have; I pity these younger sons just ran into some fat living as a dernier ressort."
"He is just the fellow," said Douglas "to hail as a godsend disestablishment, when he will be compelled to graze in more palatable pastures."
"Oh, when Church and State are severed, primogeniture will follow; then he will get a slice of the estate of the pater," said Vaura.
"And for the younger sons a more comfortable dinner than of herbs," said Bertram.
"Then you think the 'stalled ox' brings one more content in our age of comforts," said Lady Esmondet.