In fact, it is not that I consider the ball as ill-timed; what does it signify?
But, Fanny," stopping her, by taking her hand, and speaking low and seriously, "you know what all this means.
You see how it is; and could tell me, perhaps better than I could tell you, how and why I am vexed.

Let me talk to you a little.

You are a kind, kind listener.

I have been pained by her manner this morning, and cannot get the better of it.

I know her disposition to be as sweet and faultless as your own, but the influence of her former companions makes her seem--gives to her conversation, to her professed opinions, sometimes a tinge of wrong.