When she came to S. she was unwell, and consulted my friend B. He did
not at first quite like attending her, and she reported to me with great
laughter how she had been told that he had made some inquiries about her
from one of her neighbours at home with whom he happened to be
acquainted, and how he had manoeuvred in his visits to get the servants
or the landlady into the room. I met him soon afterwards, and he
informed me that he had a new patient. When he heard that I knew her--I
did not say how much I knew--he became inquisitive, and at last, after
much beating about the bush, knitting his eyebrows and lowering his
voice, he asked me whether I was aware that she was not quite--quite
ABOVE SUSPICION! My goodness, how I flamed up! I defended her with
vehemence: I exaggerated her prudence and her modesty; I declared, what
was the simple truth, that she was the last person in the world against
whom such a scandalous insinuation should be directed, and that she was
singularly inaccessible to vulgar temptation. I added that
notwithstanding her seeming lawlessness she was not only remarkably
sensitive to any accusation of bad manners, but that upon certain
matters she could not endure even a joke.
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