Do you know, the less ignorant I become, the more considerate I am for the ignorance of others--I love them for it.' She squeezed Emma's hand with more meaning than her friend apprehended.

'So I win my advantage from the trifles I have to endure.

They are really trifles, and I should once have thought them mountains!' For the moment Diana stipulated that she might not have to encounter friends or others at Lady Dunstane's dinner-table, and the season not being favourable to those gatherings planned by Lady Dunstane in her project of winning supporters, there was a respite, during which Sir Lukin worked manfully at his three Clubs to vindicate Diana's name from the hummers and hawers, gaining half a dozen hot adherents, and a body of lukewarm, sufficiently stirred to be desirous to see the lady.

He worked with true champion zeal, although an interview granted him by the husband settled his opinion as to any possibility of the two ever coming to terms.

Also it struck him that if he by misadventure had been a woman and the wife of such a fellow, by Jove!...