There was no part of her conduct in all her life,
which this lady, when it was impugned, would defend more strongly than
this intimacy at the Hotel de Florac. It is not with this I quarrel
especially. My fair young readers, who have seen a half-dozen of seasons,
can you call to mind the time when you had such a friendship for Emma
Tomkins, that you were always at the Tomkins's, and notes were constantly
passing between your house and hers? When her brother, Paget Tomkins,
returned to India, did not your intimacy with Emma fall off? If your
younger sister is not in the room, I know you will own as much to me. I
think you are always deceiving yourselves and other people. I think the
motive you put forward is very often not the real one; though you will
confess, neither to yourself, nor to any human being, what the real
motive is. I think that what you desire you pursue, and are as selfish in
your way as your bearded fellow-creatures are. And as for the truth being
in you, of all the women in a great acquaintance, I protest there are
but--never mind.
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