we met."

"Do you call that waltzing?" said Mrs. Hanson, laying down her netting; "it
appears to me to be more the work of the hands than the feet a great deal;
and you go round and round, child, very foolishly, till one grows giddy to
look at you--so, so--well, and what, do the gentlemen stand by to grow
giddy too?"

"Dear mamma, the gentlemen waltz with the ladies; I said, you know, that
Sir Theodore wished me to do it, but I refused."

"You did perfectly right; I should have been much hurt if you had waltzed
with any man."

"It is very fashionable, mother."

"More the pity; but I am sure I need no argument against it to you,
Matilda."

"Indeed, mamma, I see nothing against it--I think it very graceful; and I
am sure, if you had seen Lady Emma Lovell last night, you would have
thought so too."

"My admiration of her person would not for a moment have changed my
opinion of her conduct. I see beautiful women, who expose their persons in
a manner I decidedly condemn (as I know, Matilda, you do likewise); looking
at them as fine _statues_, I may admire the work of the great Artificer;
but the moment I consider them as _women_ filling a respectable place in
society, the wives and daughters of men of rank and probity, and, what is
still stronger, women professing, at least nominally, to be members of the
Christian church, I turn from them with disgust and sorrow; and though I
sincerely despise all affectation of more exalted purity than others, I yet
will never hesitate to give my voice against a folly so unworthy of my sex,
and which can be only tolerated by women whose vanity has destroyed that
delicacy which is our best recommendation."

Matilda applied all her mother said to waltzing, and thought it was equally
just with the strictures she herself felt true, with regard to the mode of
dress adopted by some whom she met in public. Ellen and herself were ever
well, and even fashionably, dressed; but yet they avoided the fault they
condemned: for some time, the sisterly affection which really subsisted
between them, induced them to appear in similar dresses; but as Matilda
rose to womanhood, a fear lest Ellen should be induced to expense, added
to some jokes that were passed upon her respecting Charles, induced her to
forego this plan, and Ellen had too much good sense to pursue it further;
and, as the acquaintance of Mrs. Hanson increased, Matilda was necessarily
led into parties where Ellen could not meet her;