It is but the variation of the phrase
which divides them. Dame Ursley told me the very same thing which your
ladyship has but now uttered; only you, madam, talk of countless
misery, and Dame Ursley spoke of the gallows, and Mistress Turner, who
was hanged upon it."
"Indeed?" answered the Lady Hermione; "and who may Dame Ursley be,
that your wise choice has associated with me in the difficult task of
advising a fool?"
"The barber's wife at next door, madam," answered Margaret, with
feigned simplicity, but far from being sorry at heart, that she had
found an indirect mode of mortifying her monitress. "She is the wisest
woman that I know, next to your ladyship."
"A proper confidant," said the lady, "and chosen with the same
delicate sense of what is due to yourself and others!--But what ails
you, maiden--where are you going?"
"Only to ask Dame Ursley's advice," said Margaret, as if about to
depart; "for I see your ladyship is too angry to give me any, and the
emergency is pressing."
"What emergency, thou simple one?" said the lady, in a kinder tone.--
"Sit down, maiden, and tell me your tale. It is true you are a fool,
and a pettish fool to boot; but then you are a child--an amiable
child, with all your self-willed folly, and we must help you, if we
can.--Sit down, I say, as you are desired, and you will find me a
safer and wiser counseller than the barber-woman.
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