"
"Oh! a learned Oxonian can always answer a poor ignorant thing like me.
One swallow does not make summer, for all that."
"But this writer's fictions are not like the novels you read; they are
works of laborious research. Besides, he is a lawyer, as well as a
novelist."
"Oh, if he is a lawyer!"
"Then I may write?"
"Yes," said Lady Bassett, despondingly.
"What is to become of Oldfield?"
"Send him to the drawing-room. I will go down and endure him for
another hour. You can write your letter here, and then please come and
relieve me of Mr. Negative."
She rang, and ordered coffee and tea into the drawing-room; and Mr.
Oldfield found her very cold company.
In half an hour Mr. Angelo came down, looking flushed and very
handsome; and Lady Bassett had some fresh tea made for him.
This done she bade the gentlemen goodnight, and went to her room. Here
she found Mary Wells full of curiosity to know whether the lawyer would
get Sir Charles out of the asylum.
Lady Bassett gave loose to her indignation, and said nothing was to be
expected from such a Nullity. "Mary, he could not see. I gave him every
opportunity. I walked slowly down the room before him after dinner; and
I came into the drawing-room and moved about, and yet he could not
see.
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