"At least," replied Henrietta, "we should carry on our sympathy to the very last. Though I cannot peculiarly admire its coincidence, I should say,
'Take any shape but that.'"
"If it does not take that," cried Lady Mary, "it will take some other just as bad. Believe me, we are all of us false, vain, selfish, inconstant; and the sooner we cease to look for any thing else, the better: we save ourselves a world of unreasonable expectation, and of bitter disappointment!"
"I would not think like you," replied Lady Marchmont, "not for the treasures of the crowned Ind. I devoutly believe in the divinity of affection; and my ideal of love, is affection in its highest state of enthusiasm and devotion. No sacrifice ever appeared to me great, that was made for its sweet sake."
"The Lord have mercy upon such notions!" cried Lady Mary, throwing herself back in her chair.
Sir Jasper would have been tempted to
