"You see, Littlepage, with how much address my cousin avoids adding, and
'very uninteresting, and very ugly, and very disagreeable, and very much
unsought,' and fifty other things she _might_ add with such perfect truth
and modesty! But is it true, that the theatre was open only one season,
here?"

"So my father tells me, though I know very little of the facts themselves.
To-night will be my first appearance in _front_ of any stage, Mr.
Bulstrode, as I understand it will be your first appearance _on_ it."

"In one sense the last will be true, though not altogether in another. As
a school-boy, I have often played, school-boy fashion; but this is quite a
new thing with us, to be _amateur_ players."

"It may seem ungrateful, when you are making so many efforts, principally
to amuse us young ladies, I feel convinced, to inquire if it be quite
as wise as it is novel. I must ask this, as a cousin, you know, Henry
Bulstrode, to escape entirely from the imputation of impertinence."

"Really, Anneke Mordaunt, I am not absolutely certain that it is. Our
manners are beginning to change in this respect, however, and I can assure
you that various noblemen have permitted sports of this sort at their
seats. The custom is French, as you probably know, and whatever is French
has much vogue with us during times of peace. Sir Harry does not altogether
approve of it, and as for my lady mother, she has actually dropped more
than one discouraging hint on the subject in her letters."

"The certain proof that you are a most dutiful son. Perhaps when Sir Harry
and Lady Bulstrode learn your great success, however, they will overlook