The lady and gentleman being in equal confusion, no advances were made on either side towards a conversation, and they had reached almost the end of the parade in an uninterrupted silence; when Mr. Selvin, fearing he should never again have so good an opportunity of making his peace, collected all his resolution, and with an accent trembling under the importance of the speech he was going to make, began—
Madam, since I have had the honour of walking with your ladyship, I have observed so many signs of constraint in your manner, that I hardly dare entreat you to grant me a moment's hearing, while I——
Sir, interrupted Arabella, before you go any further, I must inform you, that what you are going to say will mortally offend me. Take heed then how you commit any indiscretion which will force me to treat you very rigorously.
If your ladyship will not allow me to speak in my own justification, said Mr. Selvin, yet I hope you will not refuse to tell me my offence: since I——
You are very confident, indeed, interrupted Arabella again, to suppose I will repeat what would be infinitely grievous for me to hear. Against my will, pursued she, I must give you the satisfaction to know, that I am not ignorant of your crime: but I also assure you that I am highly incensed; and that not only with the thoughts you have dared to entertain of me, but likewise with your presumption in going about to disclose them.
Mr. Selvin, whom the seeming contradictions in this speech astonished, yet imagined in general it hinted at the dispute between him and Mr. Tinsel; and supposing the story had been told to his disadvantage, which was the cause of her anger, replied in great emotion at the injustice done him—
Since somebody has been so officious to acquaint your ladyship with an affair which ought to have been kept from your knowledge; it is a pity they did not inform you, that Mr. Tinsel was the person that had the least respect for your ladyship, and is more worthy of your resentment.
If Mr. Tinsel, replied Arabella, is guilty of an offence like yours, yet since he has concealed it better, he is less culpable than you; and you have done that for him, which haply he would never have had courage enough to do for himself as long as he lived.
Poor Selvin, quite confounded at these intricate words, would have begged her to explain herself, had she not silenced him with a dreadful frown; and making a stop till Miss Glanville and Mr. Tinsel came up to them, she told her cousin with a peevish accent, that she had performed her promise very ill; and whispered her, that she was to blame for all the mortifications she had suffered.
Mr. Tinsel, supposing the alteration in Arabella's humour proceeded from being so long deprived of his company; endeavoured to make her amends by a profusion of compliments; which she received with such an air of displeasure, that the beau, vexed at the ill success of his gallantry, told her, he was afraid Mr. Selvin's gravity had infected her ladyship.