Mrs. T. Your ladyship would not be surprised at this offer of my Louisa, if you had heard, as we have done within these few hours, of the loss of the East India ship in which almost our whole property was embarked.
Louisa. The Bombay Castle is wrecked.
Lady P. The Bombay Castle! I have the pleasure to tell you that you are misinformed—it was the Airly Castle that was wrecked.
Louisa and Mrs. T. Indeed!
Lady P. Yes; you may depend upon it—it was the Airly Castle that was lost. You know I am just come from Portsmouth, where I went to meet my brother, Governor Morton, who came home with the last India fleet, and from whom I had the intelligence.
(Here Violetta interrupts, to ask her mother for her nosegay—Lady P. gives it to her, then goes on speaking.)
Lady P. They were in such haste, foolish people! to carry their news to London, that they mistook one castle for another. But do you know that Mr. Bursal loses fifty thousand pounds, it is said, by the Airly Castle! When I told him she was lost, I thought he would have dropped down. However, I found he comforted himself afterwards with a bottle of Burgundy: but poor Miss Bursal has been in hysterics ever since.
Mrs. T. Poor girl! My Louisa, you did not fall into hysterics, when I told you of the loss of our whole fortune.
(Violetta, during this dialogue, has been seated on the ground making up a nosegay.)
Violet. (aside). Fall into hysterics! What are hysterics, I wonder.