“Well guessed!” interrupted Sir Philip: “to be sure you have, and you’re a charming girl--damn me if you aren’t--for meeting my ideas in this way, which will save a cursed deal of trouble,” added the polite lover, seating himself on the sofa, beside Belinda. “To prevent your giving yourself any further trouble then, sir, on my account,” said Miss Portman---- “Nay, damme, don’t catch at that unlucky word, trouble, nor look so cursed angry; though it becomes you, too, uncommonly, and I like pride in a handsome woman, if it was only for variety’s sake, for it’s not what one meets with often, now-a-days. As to trouble, all I meant was, the trouble of writing to Mrs. Stanhope, which of course I thank you for saving me; for to be sure, I’d rather (and you can’t blame me for that) have my answer from your own charming lips, if it was only for the pleasure of seeing you blush in this heavenly sort of style.” “To put an end to this heavenly sort of style, sir,” said Belinda, withdrawing her hand, which the baronet took as if he was confident of its being his willing prize, “I must explicitly assure you, that it is not in my power to encourage your addresses. I am fully sensible,” added Miss Portman, “of the honour Sir Philip Baddely has done me, and I hope he will not be offended by the frankness of my answer.” “You can’t be in earnest, Miss Portman!” exclaimed the astonished baronet. “Perfectly in earnest, Sir Philip.” “Confusion seize me,” cried he, starting up, “if this isn’t the most extraordinary thing I ever heard! Will you do me the honour, madam, to let me know your particular objections to Sir Philip Baddely?” “My objections,” said Belinda, “cannot be obviated, and therefore it would be useless to state them.” “Nay, pray, ma’am, do me the favour--I only ask for information sake--is it to Sir Philip Baddely’s fortune, 15,000l. a year, you object, or to his family, or to his person?--Oh, curse it!” said he, changing his tone, “you’re only quizzing me to see how I should look--damn me, you did it too well, you little coquet!” Belinda again assured him that she was entirely in earnest, and that she was incapable of the sort of coquetry which he ascribed to her. “Oh, damme, ma’am, then I’ve no more to say--a coquet is a thing I understand as well as another, and if we had been only talking in the air, it would have been another thing; but when I come at once to a proposal in form, and a woman seriously tells me she has objections that cannot be obviated, damme, what must I, or what must the world conclude, but that she’s very unaccountable, or that she’s engaged--which last I presume to be the case, and it would have been a satisfaction to me to have known it sooner--at any rate, it is a satisfaction to me to know it now.” “I am sorry to deprive you of so much satisfaction,” said Miss Portman, “by assuring you, that I am not engaged to any one.”