The various tricks which she had played upon certain cross old spinsters, tattlers, scandal-mongers, and backbiters, often were the theme of conversation and of mirth: but this description of _espieglerie_ contains a most serious objection; which is, that to carry on a successful and well-arranged plot, there must be a total disregard of truth.

Latterly, Miss Fanny had had no one to practise upon except Mr Ramsden, during the period of his courtship--a period at which women never appear to so much advantage, nor men appear so silly.

But even for this, the time was past, as latterly she had become so much attached to him that distress on his part was a source of annoyance to herself.
When, therefore, her father came home, narrating the circumstances which had occurred, and the plan which had been meditated, Fanny entered gaily into the scheme.

Mrs Forster had long been her abhorrence; and an insult to Mr Ramsden, who had latterly been designated by Mrs Forster as a "Pill-gilding Puppy," was not to be forgotten.

Her active and inventive mind immediately conceived a plan which would enable her to carry the joke much further than the original projectors had intended.