I caught them, in this very room, making
love."
"You alarm me," said Vizard, with marked tranquillity.
"I saw him--kiss--her--hand."
"You relieve me," said Vizard, as calmly as he had been alarmed. "There's
no harm in that. I've kissed the queen's hand, and the nation did not
rise upon me. However, I object to it. The superior sex should not play
the spaniel. I will tell him to drop that. But, permit me to say, all
this is in your department, not mine.
"But what can I do against three of them, unless you support me? There
you have let them go out together."
"Together with Fanny Dover, you mean?"
"Yes; and if Fanny had any designs on him, Zoe would be safe--"
"And poor Ned torn in two."
"But Fanny, I am grieved to say, seems inclined to assist this young man
with Zoe; that is, because it does not matter to her. She has other
views--serious ones."
"Serious! What? A nunnery? Then I pity my lady abbess."
"Her views are plain enough to anybody but you."
"Are they? Then make me as wise as my neighbors."
"Well, then, she means to marry _you."_
"What! Oh, come!--that is too good a joke!"
"It is sober earnest.
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