“Well, Lucy! I think you have done it to-day! When you knew I wished you to behave like a girl of fashion. When we had all the best company within ten miles round assembled here, just this one day, to giggle and laugh all dinner-time, and then to entertain a man of Lord Montreville’s refinement and taste with your dog’s death, and your puppies’ birth! He must think you have been brought up in the stables, rather than in the drawing-room.” “Oh, dear mamma! I assure you he asked me all about poor dear Hector’s death!” “Asked you about Hector’s death! How could he have known such a dog as Hector ever existed, if you had not begun about your own dog and your own affairs? Don’t you know that egotism should be avoided in every way, and that it is the most ill-bred thing in the world to talk of yourself and your concerns?” “So it is, mamma;—very true. I did not mean to talk of myself, and I am sure I do not know how I fell into it: but you don’t know how interested he seemed. I do not think he was bored, really: he says he is so fond of animals—just like me.” “Pooh, child!—he is a very well-bred man, and was too polite to let you feel you bored him. You must learn not to be led into pouring your own histories into people’s ears.” Mrs. Heckfield forgot that at dinner she had given Lord Montreville a very long account of the manner in which she had become possessed of the china he had admired. CHAPTER V. “Enfin ils me mettaient à mon aise: et moi qui m’imaginais qu’il y avait tant de mystère dans la politesse des gens du monde, et qui l’avais regardé comme une science qui m’était totalement inconnue, et dont je n’avais nul principe, j’étais bien surprise de voir qu’il n’y avait rien de si particulier dans la leur, rien qui me fût si étranger; mais seulement quelque chose de liant, d’obligeant, et d’aimable.” MARIVAUX. Lucy went to bed uneasy at having had such bad manners, and yet not altogether mortified; for, though she implicitly believed all her mother said of her behaviour, she did not think it had quite produced the effect she imagined upon Lord Montreville, “for mamma did not know how good-natured he was.” She generally chatted with Milly, as she was undressing; and Milly, who was aware that the party of that day was one which had excited some anxiety in her mistress’s bosom, inquired of Miss Lucy “how the gentlefolks had been pleased, and whether every thing was right at table.” “We were all pretty well placed, I believe, only mamma says I am not to sit so near Charles again, for if we get near each other we make too much noise; and Mr. Lyon did not like Miss Pennefeather at all.”