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I cannot, all simple as he is, but blush to view the intrinsic superiority of the unsophisticated man of nature, over the artificial man of the world! How much more truly a male character."

Looking at her then with examining earnestness, "To which of these antediluvian wights," he continued, "you will commit the gauntlet, that must be flung in your defence, I know not; either of us,—alas!—might be your great grandfather! But, helpless old captives as we are in your chains, we each feel a most sincere, nay, inordinate desire, to break those fetters with which, at this moment, you seem yourself to be shackled. And for this I am not wholly without a scheme, though it is one that demands a little previous parleying."

Juliet positively declined his services; but gratefully acknowledged those from which she had already, though involuntarily, profited.

"You cannot, surely," he cried, "have a predilection for your present species