"Oh, certainly not," interrupted the Comtesse; "you must be conscious that every one knows Lady Tilney's high reputation, and it would never be supposed dat you would countenance a belle passion; vraiment, quand on est tellement dupe as to sacrifice sa position dans le monde, to a man's vanity, or to be playing de sentimentale at forty, it is quite enough to make one sick, and she well deserves to be vat you call blown. _Mais, de grâce_, do not let us prose more about her--_vat sinifies?_" "Oh, very true, and then there are other matters of so much greater consequence to consider. Do you really think that this administration will hold--you who are in all the secrets?--positively you must tell me. I am sure if that man (lowering her voice to a whisper) is at the head of affairs, all must go wrong--poor England! what will become of you? But we will never allow that--shall we?" "Oh! trève de politiques, ma chere, si vous m'aimez; it is a subject quite marital, and therefore, you know, not at all in my way. What I want to revolutionize, or rather to reform, is your state of society." "Precisely, my dear Comtesse, it is the very subject on which I wished to talk to you, when I wrote requesting to see you--you received my note, did you not?" "Oh, yes; but it is an affair on which we hold such very different opinions. My maxim is, se bien amuser d'après sa propre volonté--that is what I want to do; and to tell you the truth, I am ennuyé à la mort in your London world--every thing is so stupid here! Vat signify dat tiresome Almack, after all? It was good enough at first, when it put people in a passion, et pendant que se faisoit fureur; but now that, somehow or oder, you liberales admitted every petite demoiselle vid her red elbows, and vulgar mama to take care of her, it has lost all its character, and I positively intend to withdraw my name. Besides, de lady patronesses cannot even maintain a seat at de top of de room--de oder night I find Lady Melcombe and her daughter perch up in my seat; and though I walked over them and stared them down, dey positively took no hint, but sat still so comfortably vulgar it was quite provoking. No, no, my dear, Almack's day is finish and de thing must fall--so never stay by a falling friend; when a person or a ting begins to totter, leave it." "Very true," rejoined Lady Tilney; "there is much truth in what you advise (and she looked very grave). But then, you know, my dear Comtesse, you must consider the independence of our constitution--which makes it very difficult--" "Not to have a stupid society.--Agreed." "But the great number of our nobility," rejoined Lady Tilney, "and the weight and consequence of a still greater number of influential members in the other house"---- "Renders all your pretences of a société choisie mere pretence."