the temptings of Eve, or to pique her?"

Mrs. Mount stared at the young man as at a curiosity, and turned to flirt
with one of her Court. The Guardsmen were mostly sentimental. One or
two rattled, and one was such a good-humoured fellow that Adrian could
not make him ridiculous. The others seemed to give themselves up to a
silent waxing in length of limb. However far they sat removed, everybody
was entangled in their legs. Pursuing his studies, Adrian came to the
conclusion, that the same close intellectual and moral affinity which he
had discovered to exist between our nobility and our yeomanry, is to be
observed between the Guardsman class, and that of the corps de ballet:
they both live by the strength of their legs, where also their wits, if
they do not altogether reside there, are principally developed: both are
volage; wine, tobacco, and the moon, influence both alike; and admitting
the one marked difference that does exist, it is, after all, pretty
nearly the same thing to be coquetting and sinning on two legs as on the
point of a toe.

A long Guardsman with a deep bass voice sang a doleful song about the
twining tendrils of the heart ruthlessly torn, but required urgent
persuasions and heavy trumpeting of his lungs to get to the end: before
he had accomplished it, Adrian had contrived to raise a laugh in his
neighbourhood, so that the company was divided, and the camp split:
jollity returned to one-half, while sentiment held the other. Ripton,
blotted behind the bosom, was only lucky in securing a higher degree of
heat than was possible for the rest. "Are you cold?" she would ask,
smiling charitably.

"I am," said the mignonne, as if to excuse her conduct.