"You are in the right," said Mrs. Selwyn, "not to watch time, lest you should be betrayed, unawares, into reflecting how you employ it."
"Egad, Ma'am," cried he, "if Time thought no more of me than I do of Time, I believe I should bid defiance, for one while, to old age and wrinkles; for deuce take me, if ever I think about it at all."
"Pray, Mr. Coverley," said Mrs. Selwyn, "why do you think it necessary to tell me this so often?"
"Often!" repeated he; "Egad, Madam, I don't know why I said it now;-but I'm sure I can't recollect that ever I owned as much before."
"Owned it before!" cried she, "why, my dear Sir, you own it all day long; for every word, every look, every action proclaims it."
I now not if he understood the full severity of her satire, but he only turned off with a laugh: and she then applied to Mr. Lovel, and asked if he had an almanack?
Mr. Lovel, who always looks alarmed when she addresses him, with some hesitation answered, "I assure you, Ma'am, I have no manner of antipathy to an almanack,-none in the least,-I assure you;-I dare say I have four or five."
"Four or five!-pray, may I ask what use you make of so many?"
"Use!-really, Ma'am, as to that,-I don't make any particular use of them; but one must have them, to tell one the day of the month:-I'm sure, else I should never keep it in my head."
"And does your time pass so smoothly unmarked, that, without an almanack, you could not distinguish one day from another?"
"Really, Ma'am," cried he, colouring, "I don't see anything so very particular in having a few almanacks; other people have them, I believe, as well as me."
"Don't be offended," cried she, "I have but made a little digression. All I want to know is, the state of the moon;-for if it is at the full, I shall be saved a world of conjectures, and know at once to what cause to attribute the inconsistencies I have witnessed this morning. In the first place, I heard Lord Orville excuse himself from going out, because he had business of importance to transact at home;-yet have I seen him sauntering alone in the garden this half hour. Miss Anville, on the other hand, I invited to walk out with me; and, after seeking her every where round the house, I find her quietly seated in the drawing-room. And, but a few minutes since, Sir Clement Willoughby, with even more than his usual politeness, told me he was come to spend the morning here;-when, just now, I met him flying down stairs, as if pursued by the Furies; and far from repeating his compliments, or making any excuse, he did not even answer a question I asked him, but rushed past me, with the rapidity of a thief from a bailiff!"