The modern Griselda looked “fierce as ten furies.” Emma softened her husband’s observation by adding, “that allowance should certainly be made for poor Chaucer, if we consider the times in which he wrote. The situation and understandings of women have been so much improved since his days. Women were then slaves, now they are free. My dear,” whispered she to her husband, “your mother is not well; shall we go home?”
Emma left the room; and even Mrs. Nettleby, after she was gone, said, “Really she is not ugly when she blushes.”
“No woman is ugly when she blushes,” replied our heroine; “but, unluckily, a woman cannot always blush.”
Finding that her attempt to make Emma ridiculous had failed, and that it had really placed Mrs. Granby’s understanding, manners, and temper in a most advantageous and amiable light, Griselda was mortified beyond measure. She could scarcely bear to hear Emma’s name mentioned.
CHAPTER V.
“She that can please, is certain to persuade,
To-day is lov’d, to-morrow is obey’d.”
A few days after the reading party, Griselda was invited to spend an evening at Mrs. Granby’s.
“I shall not go,” said she, throwing down the card with an air of disdain.