Page:The Wanderer (1814 Volume 5).pdf/261

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

( 253 )

you are so good as to enter into this affair, to state to you that this young woman comes from abroad; and has no ostensible method of living in this country: will it not, then, be more consonant to prudence and decorum, that she should hasten to return whence she came?"

"Madam," answered the Admiral, coldly, "I never give advice upon the onset of a question; that is to say, never till I see that one thing had better be done than another. I have no great taste for groping in the dark; wherefore, when I don't rightly make out what a person would be at, I think the best mode to keep clear of a dispute, is to sheer off; whereby one avoids, in like manner, either to give or take an affront: two things not much more to my mind the one than the t'other. And so, Madam, I wish you good day."

He then, with a formal bow, left the room, Juliet gliding out by his side; while Mrs. Howel, powerless to detain