The Repeal of Reticence
been lavished, tries to believe that he has made ample reparation by an annuity of fifty pounds."
This kind of sentiment is out of place in everything save eighteenth-century lyrics, which are not expected to be a guiding force in morals. A woman with "lovely graces of character" does not usually become the mistress even of a rich man. After all, there is such a thing as triumphant virtue. It has an established place in the annals and traditions, the ballads and stories of every land.
"A mayden of England, sir, never will be
The wench of a monarcke," quoth Mary Ambree.
It is like a breath of fresh air blowing away mists to hear this gay and gallant militant assert the possibilities of resistance.
Forty years ago, a writer in "Blackwood's Magazine" commented upon the amazing fact that in Hogarth's day (more than a century earlier) vignettes repre-
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