hope or
endeavour to succeed in. Such a tincture of corruption will always
remain the mind of what you are pleased to term a gallant man, to whom I
should give the less polite appellation of vicious, that I could not be
happy in his society. A reformed rake may be sober, but is never
virtuous.'

Lord Robert growing very urgent to know what she had particularly to lay
to his charge, she told him frankly, that his treatment of Lady Mary
Jones had disgusted her, as she, and perhaps she only, had been
acquainted with the whole.

Lord Robert endeavoured to excuse himself on the encouragement Lady
Mary's levity had given to his hopes; observing that when a woman's
behaviour was very light, his sex were not apt to imagine there was any
great fund of virtue; nor could it be expected that any one else should
guard that honour of which she herself was careless.

'I am sure,' replied Miss Selvyn, 'your lordship's hopes must have been
founded on Lady Mary's folly, not her real want of innocence; a folly
which arose from the giddiness of youth and the hurry of dissipation;
for by nature Lady Mary's understanding is uncommonly good. By what you
say, you imagined her honour was lawful prize, because she appeared
careless of it; would this way of arguing be allowed in any other case?
If you observed a man who neglected to lock up his money, and seemed
totally indifferent what became of it, should you think yourself thereby
justified in robbing him? But how much more criminal would you be, were
you to deprive him of his wealth because he was either so thoughtless or
so weak as not to know its value? And yet surely the injury in this case
would be much less than what you think so justifiable. If the world has
but the least sense of real honour, in this light they must see it; and
to that tribunal I imagine you only think yourself answerable; for did
you reflect but one moment on another bar before which you will be
summoned, you would see there can be no excuse for violating the laws by
which you are there to be tried. If you could justify yourself to the
world, or to the women of whose folly you take advantage, by the
fallacious arguments which you have so ready for that purpose, such
cobweb sophistry cannot weaken the force of an express command.'

'I will not pretend,' answered Lord Robert, 'to deny the truth of what
you say, but must beg you will consider it more easy for you to urge
these truths, than for those to obey them who