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She then told the stranger to study the part of Lady Wronghead, to fill up the chasm.

The stranger began some earnest excuses, but they were lost in the louder exclamations of Mrs. Maple, whose disappointment in finding the scheme still supported, was aggravated into rage, by the unexpected proposition of admitting the stranger into the sett. "What, Miss Joddrel!" she cried, "is it not enough that you have made us a by-word in the neighbourhood, by wanting to act with farmers and servants? Must you also bring a foundling girl into your sett? an illegitimate stroller, who does not so much as know her own name?"

The stranger, deeply reddening, gravely answered, "Far from wishing to enter into any plan of amusement, I could not have given my consent to it, even if solicited."

"Nobody asks what you could have done, I hope!" Mrs. Maple began,