And this moral, for all who ran, but more particularly for those who
danced, to read, was as follows:--
It all came of wanting things above your station.
"How simply does your sex dispose of the problems of life, ma'am,"
replied Mr. Constantine to Miss Flora Le Pettit, the heiress of Ignores
Manor, when she supplied him with this moral as an epitaph oh the
affair. Miss Le Pettit smiled on him amiably, but arched her already
springing brows as well, for though everyone knew Mr. Constantine was
reputed clever, there were the gravest doubts about his orthodoxy.
"Problems of life, Mr. Constantine?" she demanded. "Surely over-fine
words to apply to the crazy acts of a village girl deranged in her
intellects." She would have added: "And a nameless one at that," if
she had not remembered (what, in truth, she was never in danger of
forgetting) that she was a lady talking to a gentleman.
"A village girl is as capable of passion as you or I," replied he, and
had he not remembered (what he was somewhat apt to forget) that he was a
gentleman talking to a lady, he would have added: "And a great deal more
so than you." Miss Le Pettit, who considered that he _had_ forgotten
it, gave the little movement known as "bridling," which reared her
ringletted head a trifle higher on her white shoulders, then decided to
front the obnoxious word bravely as a woman of the world. She had met
with it chiefly in books where it was used solely to denote anger.
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