hich it is unwise to defer
too long. By the bye, have you heard the news? The Duke of York has done
us a service for which I was unprepared. (More tea, Barbara!) George
Austin, bringing the prince in his train, is with us once more.

DOROTHY. I knew he was coming.

MISS FOSTER. You knew, child? and did not tell? You are a public
criminal.

DOROTHY. I did not think it mattered, Aunt Evelina.

MISS FOSTER. O do not make-believe. I am in love with him myself, and
have been any time since Nelson and the Nile. As for you, Dolly, since
he went away six months ago, you have been positively in the megrims. I
shall date your loss of appetite from George Austin's vanishing. No, my
dear, our family require entertainment: we must have wit about us, and
beauty, and the _bel air_.

BARBARA. Well, Miss Dorothy, perhaps it's out of my place: but I do hope
Mr. Austin will come: I should love to have him see my necklace on.

DOROTHY. Necklace? what necklace? Did he give you a necklace?

BARBARA. Yes, indeed, Miss, that he did; the very same day he drove you
in his curricle to Penshurst. You remember, Miss, I couldn't go.

DOROTHY. I remember.

MISS FOSTER. And so do I. I had a touch of ... Foster in the blood: the
family gout, dears!... And you, you ungrateful nymph, had him a whole
day to yourself, and not a word to tell me when you returned.

DOROTHY. I remember. (_Rising._) Is that the necklace, Barbara? It does
not suit you. Give it me.

BARBARA. La, Miss Dorothy, I wouldn't for the world.

DOROTHY. Come, give it me. I want it. Thank you: you shall have my
birthday pearls instead.

MISS FOSTER. Why, Dolly, I believe you're jealous of the maid. Foster,
Foster: always a Foster trick to wear the willow in anger.

DOROTHY. I do not think, madam, that I am of a jealous habit.

MISS FOSTER. O, the personage is your excuse! And I can tell you, child,
that when George Austin was playing Florizel to the Duchess's Perdita,
all the maids in England fell a prey to green-eyed melancholy. It was
the _ton_, you see: not to pine for that Sylvander was to resign from
good society.

DOROTHY. Aunt Evelina, stop; I cannot endure to hear you. What is he
after all but just Beau Austin? What has he done--with half a century of
good health, what has he done that is either memorable or worthy? Diced
and danced and set fashions; vanquished in a drawing-room, fought for a
word; what else? As if these were the meaning of life! Do not make me