priety. It is also rumored that she is, some way, a very
distinguished person, reduced by those horrid revolutions of which they
have so many in Europe."

"Noble, I dare say!"

"Oh! that at least. Some persons affirm that she is semi-ROYAL. The
country is full of broken-down royalty and nobility. Do you think she
has an aristocratic air?"

"Not in the least--her ears are too small."

"Why, my dear, that is the very symbol of nobility! When my Aunt
Harding was in Naples, she knew the Duke of Montecarbana, intimately;
and she says he had the smallest ears she ever beheld on a human being.
The Montecarbanas are a family as old as the ruins of Paestum, they
say."

{Paestum = ancient Roman city outside Naples}

"Well, to my notion, nobility and teaching little girls French and
Italian, and their gammes, have very little in common. I had thought
Mr. Shoreham an admirer of Miss Monson's."

{gammes = musical scales}

Now, unfortunately, my mistress overheard this remark. Her feelings
were just in that agitated state to take the alarm, and she determined
to flirt with a young man of the name of Thurston, with a view to
awaken Betts's jealousy, if he had any, and to give vent to her own
spleen. This Tom Thurston was one of those tall, good-looking young
fellows who come from, nobody knows where, get into society, nobody
knows how, and live on, nobody knows what. It was pretty generally
understood that he was on the look-out for a rich wife, and
encouragement from Julia Monson was not likely to be disregarded by
such a person. To own the truth, my mistress carried matters much too
far--so far, indeed, as to attract attention from every body but those
most concerned; viz. her own mother and Betts Shoreham. Although
elderly ladies play cards very little, just now, in American society,
or, indeed, in any other, they have their inducements for rendering the
well-known office of matron at a ball, a mere sinecure. Mrs. Monson,
too, was an indulgent mother, and seldom saw any thing very wrong in
her own children. Julia, in the main, had sufficient retenue, and a
suspicion of her want of discretion on this point, was one of the last
things that would cross the fond parent's mind at Mrs. Leamington's
ball. Others, however, were less confiding.

{retenue = discretion}

"Your daughter is in HIGH SPIRITS to-night," observed a single lady of
a certain age, who was sitting near Mrs. Monson; "I do not remember to
have ever seen her