"
Ethel. Why do you sneer at all faith? Why should not a retreat do people
good? Do you suppose the world is so satisfactory, that those who are in
it never wish for a while to leave it'd (She heaves a sigh and looks down
towards a beautiful new dress of many flounces, which Madame de
Flouncival, the great milliner, has sent her home that very day.)
Clive. I do not know what the world is, except from afar off. I am like
the Peri who looks into Paradise and sees angels within it. I live in
Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square: which is not within the gates of
Paradise. I take the gate to be somewhere in Davies Street, leading out
of Oxford Street into Grosvenor Square. There's another gate in Hay Hill:
and another in Bruton Street, Bond----
Ethel. Don't be a goose.
Clive. Why not? It is as good to be a goose, as to be a lady--no, a
gentleman of fashion. Suppose I were a Viscount, an Earl, a Marquis, a
Duke, would you say Goose? No, you would say Swan.
Ethel. Unkind and unjust!--ungenerous to make taunts which common people
make: and to repeat to me those silly sarcasms which your low Radical
literary friends are always putting in their books! Have I ever made any
difference to you? Would I not sooner see you than the fine people? Would
I talk with you, or with the young dandies most willingly? Are we not of
the same blood, Clive; and of all the grandees I see about, can there be
a grander gentleman than your dear old father? You need not squeeze my
hand so.
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