Lord Spoonbill very readily accounted for what appeared to him as the ready compliance of Penelope, by referring it to the circumstances of the desertion of Robert Darnley, and the perplexed condition of her father’s affairs. His lordship also took it into his head that Mr Primrose had designedly misrepresented the condition of his property, and therefore his lordship affected to be mightily angry with him, and to think that it would be but a proper and suitable retaliation to deceive the unwary daughter. This was a curious mode of reasoning, but a very slight shadow of apology will serve to satisfy a gentleman of such habits and pursuits as the heir apparent to the earldom of Smatterton. Besides, if a man is resolved on an act of treachery and meanness at all events, what signifies the strength or weakness of the apology which he makes to himself? The most logical apology is no excuse to the world, and the most illogical is a very good one to himself. CHAPTER IX. When a lady of such temperament as Lady Aimwell takes upon herself the trouble of going into a fit of the sullens, though she may in the first instance be speechless and even resolve not to open her lips upon the subject of her wrath, or to utter any expressions of anger against the object of her indignation, yet she finds at the last that there is no other mode of getting rid of the oppressive burden than by throwing it off in words. In like manner, also, when two gentlemen quarrel about any subject, whether it be geology, or theology, and they cannot convince one another, then they are angry and sulky, and they treat one another with what they call silent contempt, and yet they make a mighty noise and a great trumpeting about the silence of their contempt. So again, when an author who has written the best possible book on any subject, and another author reviews that same book and proves by most ingenious argument that it is utterly worthless, the writer of the book runs about among the circle of his acquaintance foaming at the mouth to shew how cool he is, and dinning every one’s ears with the noise that he makes in proclaiming his silent contempt of the scrub who has criticized him. And what else can he do? Who is to know anything of the existence of silent contempt unless it be advertized? We have heard the phrase, “proclaiming silence;” it has its origin perhaps in this silence of contempt, which by the way seems to be rather a contempt of silence. If the reader does not by this time understand the state of mind in which Lady Aimwell was, on the occasion referred to, he must be obtuse; if he does not pity Arabella Glossop, he must be inhuman and unfeeling.