when she asked the Dodds in return, to have a clergyman there of her own
party, who could pray and expound with unction.

Mrs. Dodd, not to throw cold water on what seemed to gratify her
children, accepted Miss Hardie's invitation; but she never intended to
go, and at the last moment wrote to say she was slightly indisposed. The
nature of her _indisposition_ she revealed to Julia alone. "That young
lady keeps me on thorns. I never feel secure she will not say or do
something extravagant or unusual: she seems to suspect sobriety and good
taste of being in league with impiety. Here I succeed in bridling her a
little; but encounter a female enthusiast in her own house? _merci!_
After all, there must be something good in her, since she is your friend,
and you are hers. But I have something more serious to say before you go
there: it is about her brother. He is a flirt: in fact, a notorious one,
more than one lady tells me."

Julia was silent, but began to be very uneasy; they were sitting and
talking after sunset, yet without candles. She profited for once by that
prodigious gap in the intelligence of "the sex."

"I hear he pays you compliments, and I have seen a disposition to single
you out. Now, my love, you have the good sense to know that, whatever a
young gentleman of that age says to you, he says to many other ladies;
but your experience is not equal to your sense; so profit by mine. A girl
of your age must never be talked of with a person of the other sex: it is
fatal; fatal! but if you permit yourself to be singled out, you will be
talked of, and distress those who love you. It is easy to avoid
injudicious duets in society; oblige me by doing so to-night." To show
how much she was in earnest, Mrs. Dodd hinted that, were her admonition
neglected, she should regret for once having kept clear of an enthusiast.