"I know it would—youth is always so full of sympathy. I own I have a preference for the society of my young friends on that account. My good Mrs. Finch, indeed, is an exception; but worthy Mrs. Downe Wright has been almost too much for me."
"She is too much!" said the Duke.
"She is a great deal too much!" said the General.
"She is a vast deal too much!" said Mrs. Finch.
"I own I have been rather overcome by her!" with a deep-drawn sigh, which her visitors hastily availed themselves of to make their retreat. The Duke and the General handed Lady Emily and Mary to their carriage.
"You find my poor sister wonderfully composed," said the former.
"Charming woman, Lady Matilda!" ejaculated the latter; "her feelings do honour to her head and heart!"
Mary sprang into the carriage as quick as possible to be saved the embarrassment of a reply; and it was not till they were fairly out of sight that she ventured to raise her eyes to her cousin's face. There the expression of ill-humour and disgust were so strongly depicted that she could not longer repress her risible emotions, but gave way to a violent fit of laughter.
"How!" exclaimed her companion, "is this the only effect 'Matilda's moan' has produced upon you? I expected your taste for grief would have been highly gratified by this affecting representation."
"My appetite, you ought rather to say," replied Mary; "taste implies some discrimination, which you seem to deny me."