“You don’t seem to understand my plans, Mamma. Ellen Grey is pretty, and modest, and sentimental, and all that; she is just the kind of person to be very attractive to gentlemen when seen in domestic life, but she is too timid to appear well in a place like this. She will scarcely dare to raise her eyes in such a crowd, and therefore there can be no rivalry between us. Besides, she has a great deal of taste, and her assistance at my toilet enables me to dispense with a dressing maid.” “I cannot see much force in your argument.” “Perhaps not; what would you say if I tell you I want her as a foil?” “She is too pretty to serve such a purpose.” “You are greatly mistaken; any body would look well beside an ugly girl, but one must be exceedingly beautiful to bear a comparison with as pretty a creature as Ellen Grey. Her delicate complexion, which is continually suffused with blushes, her fair hair and blue eyes would appear lovelier any where else than they will beside me.” “Such beauty as yours requires no foil, Laura.” “I choose to employ one, notwithstanding; I have come here for the express purpose of attracting Fitzroy Beauchamp, and I mean to neglect nothing, however trifling, to compass my schemes.” “What will Cecil Forrester say?” “If I succeed, he may say what he pleases. I mean to play off my present lover against the future one; and Cecil will be of use to me by exciting the jealousy of Beauchamp.” “I declare you are too bad, Laura.” “I only mean to study your interest and my own, Mamma. Cecil Forrester was a delightful companion in the country, his enthusiasm was so well adapted to the time and place, that it seemed to give charms to the dull and stupid village, which it could not otherwise have possessed. I certainly played my part to perfection, indeed, I almost began to fancy that there was really some feeling in my acting; at any rate he has the most implicit faith in my sensibility. How often I have laughed over the love-sick youth’s rural wish! I think I see myself as ‘Lucy at her spinning-wheel, In russet gown and apron blue.’” “I wonder how you kept up the farce so long, Laura; even Ellen thinks you a most exemplary sentimentalist.” “Oh, it was a pleasant mode of getting rid of time; nothing sharpens one’s wits like a flirtation with a real lover—I have learned twenty new stratagems from my ‘_country practice_.’” “Are you sure Mr. Beauchamp is rich?” “He drives blood-horses, sports a tiger in livery, lives at the Astor, drinks wine at $8 a bottle, and, what is more, pays his bills.” “How did you learn this?”