You must suppose me desperately fond of hunting.

But indeed there were days when I found a great deal of interest in what it was courtesy to call my government.

And I have always had some claim to taste; I could tell live happiness from dull routine; and between hunting, and the throne of Austria, and your society, my choice had never wavered, had the choice been mine.

You were a girl, a bud, when you were given me--' 'Heavens!' she cried, 'is this to be a love-scene ?' 'I am never ridiculous,' he said; 'it is my only merit; and you may be certain this shall be a scene of marriage _a la mode_.

But when I remember the beginning, it is bare courtesy to speak in sorrow.