He contrived to amuse Lesbia
by his conversation, which was essentially mundane, depreciating people
whom all the rest of the world admired, or pretended to admire, telling
her of the secret springs by which the society she saw around her was
moved. He was judicious in his revelations of hidden evil, and careful
to say nothing which should offend Lady Lesbia's modesty; yet he
contrived in a very short time to teach her that the world in which she
lived was an utterly corrupt world, whose high priest was Satan; that
all lofty aspirations and noble sentiments were out of place in society;
and that the worst among the people she met were the people who laid any
claim to being better than their neighbours.
'That's why I adore Lady Kirkbank,' he said, confidentially. 'The dear
soul never pretends to be any better than the rest of us. She gambles,
and we all know she gambles; she pegs, and we all know she pegs; and she
makes rather a boast of being up to her eyes in debt. No humbug about
dear old Georgie.'
Lesbia had seen enough, of her chaperon by this time to know that Mr.
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