And my father," she added, with a reproachful glance, "was your friend, my lord." He shifted uncomfortably on his feet, deploring now the question with which he had fired the train of feminine complaint.

"Pish, pish!" he deprecated, "'tis fancy, child--pure fancy!" "So her Ladyship would say, did you tax her with it.

Yet your lordship knows I am not fanciful in other things.

Should I, then, be fanciful in this ?" "But what has her ladyship ever done, child ?" he demanded, thinking thus to baffle her--since he was acquainted with the subtlety of her ladyship's methods.
"A thousand things," replied Hortensia hotly, "and yet not one upon which I may fasten.

'Tis thus she works: by words, half-words, looks, sneers, shrugs, and sometimes foul abuse entirely disproportionate to the little cause I may unwittingly have given." "Her ladyship is a little hot," the earl admitted, "but a good heart; 'tis an excellent heart, Hortensia." "For hating-ay, my lord." "Nay, plague on't! That's womanish in you.