"Courage to break rules? I hear they all call one another by their
Christian names, and live in one another's rooms, and borrow one
another's money, and despise conventionalities. I am sorry you are an
Archangel, Lady Kitty."
"I didn't admit that I was," said Kitty, "but if I am, why are you
sorry?"
"Because," said the Dean, smiling, "I thought you were too clever to
despise conventionalities."
Kitty sat up with revived energy, and joined battle. She flew into a
tirade as to the dulness and routine of English life, the stupidity of
good people, and the tyranny of English hypocrisy. The Dean listened
with amusement, then with a shade of something else. At last he got up
to go.
"Well, you know, we have heard all that before. My point of view is so
much more interesting--subtle--romantic! Anybody can attack Mrs. Grundy,
but only a person of originality can adore her. Try it, Lady Kitty. It
would be really worth your while."
Kitty mocked and exclaimed.
"Do you know what that phrase--that name of abomination--always recalls
to me?" pursued the old man.
"It bores me, even to guess," was Kitty's petulant reply.
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