The House is the only business of
his life; and he is becoming a power in the House. You have every reason
to be proud of your choice, Lesbia.'
'I will try to be proud of it,' said Lesbia, resolutely. 'I will not be
scorned and trampled upon by Mary.'
'She seemed a harmless kind of girl,' said Lady Kirkbank, as if she had
been talking of a housemaid.
'She is a designing minx,' exclaimed Lesbia, 'and has set her cap at
that man from the very beginning.'
'But she could not have known that he was Lord Hartfield.'
'No; but he was a man; and that was enough for her.'
From this time forward there was a change in Lady Lesbia's style and
manner--a change very much for the worse, as old-fashioned people
thought; but to the taste of some among Lady Kirkbank's set, the change
was an improvement. She was gayer than of old, gay with a reckless
vivacity, intensely eager for action and excitement, for cards and
racing, and all the strongest stimulants of fashionable life. Most
people ascribed this increased vivacity, this electric manner, to the
fact of her engagement to Horace Smithson.
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