Well, Bertha asked the Prince how his mother was!" She stopped.
"I suppose he knew whom she was talking about ?" "Oh, that was the worst of it--he couldn't _help knowing_," cried Miss Bennett.

"I should have sunk through the floor with mortification if I had done such a thing.

I should have expected to be arrested on the spot for high treason.

Bertha says, you know, that she was so nervous at the thought of who her partner was that she didn't know what she was saying; but I scarcely think she knew really how to address him.

One can never be thankful enough, I'm sure, for having been thoroughly well brought up." She went on to explain what had been her own sensations when first accosted by this wonderful Prince, upon being led out by him, and so on.
It all sounded like a new fairy tale; but afterwards, when she had gone, with cordial wishes, as she took leave, that another prince might come soon and dance with Sophia, the latter felt as if she had been reading a page of an old-fashioned history which took account only of kings and tournaments.
This visit was a distinct disappointment on the whole.