CHAPTER II. — MASKS

“WHERE WERE WE WHEN ALL this began?” cried Lady Delacour, forcing herself to resume an air of gaiety—"O, masquerade was the order of the day—-tragedy or comedy? which suits your genius best, my dear?”

“Whichever suits your ladyship’s taste least.”

“Why, my woman, Marriott, says I ought to be tragedy; and, upon the notion that people always succeed best when they take characters diametrically opposite to their own—Clarence Hervey’s principle—p