'A few evenings will dispel all your _mauvaise honte_,' he gaily
said. 'I will hear of no silly objections;' and, thrusting a purse
of gold into her hand, he left the room.
Amy could scarcely realise the truth of the position in which she
stood. The events of the last few days seemed like a dream; but if
so, it was a dream from which she would have been glad to have
awakened, and to have found herself in her former humble home. She
could not but fear that all her father possessed was held upon a very
uncertain tenure, and, what was worse, that it was obtained by
dishonourable means. This idea was strengthened when the gala evening
arrived, and our heroine was introduced to her father's principal
patron, a vain and weak-minded man, who listened to his host's
extravagant adulation with evident complacency, though to every one
else it was palpably insincere. Beaufort insisted on his visiting his
studio, to give his opinion of the grouping of a historical piece he
had sketched out for Amy to fill up.
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