Ferdinand blushed, and looked confused at this appeal, and muttered some contradictory compliments.
‘Oh! I am very well now,’ said Miss Temple.
‘You must come and dine with me,’ said Lady Bellair to Count Mirabel, ‘because you talk well across a table. I want a man who talks well across a table. So few can do it without bellowing. I think you do it very well.’
‘Naturally,’ replied the Count. ‘If I did not do it well, I should not do it at all.’
‘Ah! you are audacious,’ said the old lady. ‘I like a little impudence. It is better to be impudent than to be servile.’
‘Mankind are generally both,’ said the Count.
‘I think they are,’ said the old lady. ‘Pray, is the old Duke of Thingabob alive? You know whom I mean: he was an émigré, and a relation of yours.’
‘De Crillon. He is dead, and his son too.’
‘He was a great talker,’ said Lady Bellair, ‘but then, he was the tyrant of conversation. Now, men were made to listen as well as to talk.’
‘Without doubt,’ said the Count; ‘for Nature has given us two ears, but only one mouth.’