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ETHEL CHURCHILL.
253

my enemies so cordially as I do at this moment."

"Nay," replied Lady Marchmont, "I cannot help feeling obliged to it; at all events, you cannot seek safety in flight. We have stormed your stronghold, and you must yield yourself our prisoner, rescue or no rescue!"

"Not so bad as that, either," exclaimed Walpole; "I would not fly, if I could:

'Old as I am, for ladies' love unfit,
The power of beauty I remember yet!'"

"I trust," returned Henrietta, with a glance at the silent and confused Ethel, "that we shall find you a very slave to its influence."

Sir Robert smiled, and then said, in a good-humoured tone, "Well, now, fair ladies, what do you want with me? for, I suppose, you are no exceptions to the general rule; no one ever comes to me who does not want something."

"Well," replied the young countess, "you would not have us unlike every body else in the world?"