'O Lionel! and can you, just now——'
'Come, come,' interrupted he, 'don't let us waste our precious minutes in old moralizing. If I had not luckily been hard by, I should not have known the coast was clear. Pray where are they gone, tantivying?'
'To Cleves.'
'To Cleves! what a happy escape! I was upon the point of going thither myself. Camilla, what is the matter with thee?'
'Nothing—I am only thinking—pray when do you go to Oxford?'
'Pho, pho,—what do you talk of Oxford for? you are grown quite stupid, girl. I believe you have lived too long with Miss Margland. Pray how does that dear creature do? I am afraid she will grow melancholy from not seeing me so long. Is she as pretty as she used to be? I have some notion of sending her a suitor.'
'O brother,' said Lavinia, 'is it possible you can have such spirits?'
'O hang it, if one is not merry when one can, what is the world good for? besides, I do assure you, I fretted so consumed hard at first, that for the life of me I can fret no longer.'
'But why are you not at Dr. Marchmont's?'
'Because, my dear, you have no conception the pleasure those old doctors take in lecturing a youngster who is in any disgrace.'