Sharp will think
even London injured."
"Do you really hold London so cheap?" inquired the latter gentleman, with
more interest than he himself was quite aware of betraying.
"Indeed, no. This would be to discredit my own tastes and knowledge. In a
hundred things, I think London quite the finest town of Christendom. It is
not Rome, certainly, and were it in ruins fifteen centuries, I question if
people would flock to the banks of the Thames to dream away existence
among its crumbling walls; but, in conveniences, beauty of verdure, a
mixture of park-like scenery and architecture, and in magnificence of a
certain sort, one would hardly know where to go to find the equal
of London."
"You say nothing of its society, Miss Effingham?"
"It would be presuming, in a girl of my limited experience to speak of
this. I hear so much of the good sense of the nation, that I dare not say
aught against its society, and it would be affectation for me to pretend
to commend it; but as for your females, judging by my own poor means, they
strike me as being singularly well cultivated and accomplished;
and yet---"
"Go on, I entreat you. Recollect we have solemnly decided in a general
congress of states to be cosmopolites, until safe within Sandy Hook, and
that _la franchise_ is the _mot d'ordre_.
Pages:
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428