"You have a good heart, I know, ma'am, and we females ought naturally to assist each other in all our little peccadillos," remarked my companion.
"Well?"
"Why, ma'am, I am going to ask your advice, who are better acquainted with his lordship's tastes than I am. I was thinking now, that this little netting-box is pretty and lady-like! Shall I be netting a purse, or will it have a better effect to put on my gloves and be doing nothing?"
Before I could answer this deep question my footman entered the room with a letter, sealed with a large coronet, and told me that a servant waited below for an answer.
"I will ring when it is ready, James," said I, opening the letter.
"It is an excuse from the Earl of Fife!" said Miss Eliza Higgins, growing whiter than her pearl powder.
Indignation kept me silent after reading the following impertinent letter from the Marquis of Sligo, to whom I had only been presented the day before.
"MY DEAR MISS WILSON,—Will you be so condescending as to allow me to pass this evening alone with you after Lord Lansdowne's party?
"SLIGO."
I had not been so enraged for several years! I rang my bell with such violence that I frightened Miss Eliza Higgins out of the very little wit she possessed.
"Who waits?" said I to James.