“I know it only by common report, madam.”
“Common report, sir, I believe is seldom wrong in a matter where to be right is so easy.”
“Have you any objection, madam, to telling me your name?”
“No, sir; but your business can hardly be very important, if you are yet to learn whom you are to address. It will be time enough, therefore, for us to meet when you are elsewhere satisfied in this point.”
She would then have left the room.
“I beg, madam,” cried the stranger, “you will have patience; it is necessary, before I can open my business, that I should hear your name from yourself.”
“Well, sir,” cried she with some hesitation, “you can scarce have come to this house, without knowing that its owner is Cecilia Beverley.”
“That, madam, is your maiden name.”
“My maiden name?” cried she, starting.
“Are you not married, madam?”