One day, Lady Dashfort, who in fact was not proud of her family, though
she pretended to be so, had herself prevailed on, though with much
difficulty, by Lady Killpatrick, to do the very thing she wanted to do,
to show her genealogy, which had been beautifully blazoned, and which
was to be produced as evidence in the lawsuit that brought her to
Ireland. Lord Colambre stood politely looking on and listening, while
her ladyship explained the splendid inter-marriages of her family,
pointing to each medallion that was filled gloriously with noble, and
even with royal names, till at last she stopped short, and covering one
medallion with her finger, she said--
'Pass over that, dear Lady Killpatrick. You are not to see that, Lord
Colambre--that's a little blot in our scutcheon. You know, Isabel, we
never talk of that prudent match of great-uncle John's; what could he
expect by marrying into THAT family, where you know all the men were not
SANS PEUR, and none of the women SANS REPROCHE.'
'Oh mamma!' cried Lady Isabel, 'not one exception?'
'Not one, Isabel,' persisted Lady Dashfort; 'there was Lady --, and the
other sister, that married the man with the long nose; and the daughter
again, of whom they contrived to make an honest woman, by getting her
married in time to a BLUE-RIBBAND, and who contrived to get herself into
Doctors' Commons the very next year.
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