'No, nor about anything, my dear,' said Lord Clonbrony; 'but that's no proof they do nothing they ought to blush for.'
'What they do, there's no occasion for ladies to inquire,' said Lady Clonbrony; 'but this I know, that it's a great disadvantage to a young man of a certain rank to blush; for no people, who live in a certain set, ever do; and it is the most opposite thing possible to a certain air, which, I own, I think Colambre wants; and now that he has done travelling in Ireland, which is no use in PINT of giving a gentleman a travelled air, or anything of that sort, I hope he will put himself under my conduct for next winter's campaign in town.'
Lord Clonbrony looked as if he did not know how to look; and, after drumming on the table for some seconds, said—
'Colambre, I told you how it would be. That's a fatal hard condition of yours.'
'Not a hard condition, I hope, my dear father,' said Lord Colambre.
'Hard it must be, since it can't be fulfilled, or won't be fulfilled, which comes to the same thing,' replied Lord Clonbrony, sighing.
'I am persuaded, sir, that it will be fulfilled,' said Lord Colambre; 'I am persuaded that, when my mother hears the truth, and the whole truth—when she finds that your happiness, and the happiness of her whole family, depend upon her yielding her taste on one subject—'
'Oh, I see now what you are about,' cried Lady Clonbrony; 'you are coming round with your persuasions and prefaces to ask me to give up Lon'on, and go back with you to Ireland, my lord. You may save yourselves the trouble, all of you, for no earthly persuasions shall make me do it. I will never give up my taste on that PINT. My happiness has a right to be as much considered as your father's, Colambre, or anybody's; and, in one word, I won't do it,' cried she, rising angrily from the breakfast-table.
'There! did not I tell you how it would be?' cried Lord Clonbrony.
'My mother has not heard me, yet,' said Lord Colambre, laying his hand upon his mother's arm, as she attempted to pass; 'hear me, madam, for your own sake. You do not know what will happen, this very day—this very hour, perhaps—if you do not listen to me.'