"Miss Carlyle may well say you have the longest tongue in West Lynne; but you might have the grace to know that this subject is one more unsuitable to it than another, whether you are eating Mr.Hare's bread, or whether you are eating Mr.Carlyle's.

Another word, Wilson; it appears to me that you have been carrying on a prying system in Mrs.
Hare's house--do not attempt such a thing in this." "You were always one of the straight-laced sort, Joyce," cried Wilson, laughing good-humoredly.

"But now that I have had my say out, I shall stop; and you need not fear I shall be such a simpleton as to go prattling of this kind of thing to the servants." Now just fancy this conversation penetrating to Lady Isabel! She heard every word.

It is all very well to oppose the argument, "Who attends to the gossip of the servants ?" Let me tell you it depends upon what the subject may be, whether the gossip is attended to or not.

It might not, and indeed would not, have made so great an impression upon her had she been in strong health, but she was weak, feverish, and in a state of partial delirium; and she hastily took up the idea that Archibald Carlyle had never loved her, that he had admired her and made her his wife in his ambition, but that his heart had been given to Barbara Hare.
A pretty state of excitement she worked herself into as she lay there, jealousy and fever, ay, and love too, playing pranks with her brain.