‘Touch him, and no minister’s so sore.’
To punish you for wincing at my first setting out, I promise you, that if the lady have a million of faults, each of them high as huge Olympus, I will see them as with the eye of a flatterer—not of a friend.”
“I defy you to be so good or so bad as your word, doctor,” said Hervey. “You have too much wit to make a good flatterer.”
“And perhaps you think too much to make a good friend,” said Dr. X——.
“Not so,” said Clarence: “I would at any time rather be cut by a sharp knife than by a blunt one. But, my dear doctor, I hope you will not be prejudiced against Belinda, merely because she is with Lady Delacour; for to my certain knowledge, she in not under her ladyship’s influence. She judges and acts for herself, of which I have had an instance.”
“Very possibly!” interrupted Dr. X——. “But before we go any farther, will you please to tell me of what Belinda you are talking?”
“Belinda Portman. I forgot that I had not told you.”
“Miss Portman, a niece of Mrs. Stanhope’s?”
“Yes, but do not be prejudiced against her on that account,” said Clarence, eagerly, “though I was at first myself.”
“Then you will excuse my following your example instead of your precepts.”