He insensibly became warm in his defence,--I assure you, Matilda, he is a very clever as well as a very handsome young man, and I don't think I ever remember having seen him to the same advantage,--when, behold, in the midst of our lively conversation, a very soft sigh from Miss Lucy reached my not ungratified ears.

I was greatly too generous to prosecute my victory any farther, even if I had not been afraid of papa.

Luckily for me, he had at that moment got into a long description of the peculiar notions and manners of a certain tribe of Indians who live far up the country, and was illustrating them by making drawings on Miss Bertram's work-patterns, three of which he utterly damaged by introducing among the intricacies of the pattern his specimens of Oriental costume.

But I believe she thought as little of her own gown at the moment as of the Indian turbands and cummerbands.

However, it was quite as well for me that he did not see all the merit of my little manoeuvre, for he is as sharp-sighted as a hawk, and a sworn enemy to the slightest shade of coquetry.
'Well, Matilda, Hazlewood heard this same half-audible sigh, and instantly repented his temporary attentions to such an unworthy object as your Julia, and, with a very comical expression of consciousness, drew near to Lucy's work-table.