It is even said that Lord Squib was sentimental;
but this must have been the malice of Charles Annesley.
All, however, failed. The truth is, Mrs. Dallington Vere had nothing to
gain by re-entering Paradise, which matrimony, of course, is; and so she
determined to remain mistress of herself. She had gained fashion, and
fortune, and rank; she was young, and she was pretty. She thought it
might be possible for a discreet, experienced little lady to lead a very
pleasant life without being assisted in her expenses or disturbed in her
diversion by a gentleman who called himself her husband, occasionally
asked her how she slept in a bed which he did not share, or munificently
presented her with a necklace purchased with her own money. Discreet
Mrs. Dallington Vere!
She had been absent from London during the past season, having taken it
also into her head to travel.
She was equally admired and equally plotted for at Rome, at Paris, and
at Vienna, as at London; but the bird had not been caught, and, flying
away, left many a despairing prince and amorous count to muse over their
lean visages and meagre incomes.
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