Well, not with me, mother. Of course she was a little embarrassed; she
didn't know exactly what to say, I suppose--"

"Oh, I rather liked that. At least she isn't a rattle-pate. And we shall
get acquainted; we shall like each other. She will understand me when
you bring her home here to live with us, and--"

"Yes," said Dan, rising rather hastily, and stooping over to his mother.
"I'm not going to let you talk any more now, or we shall have to suffer
for it to-morrow night."

He got gaily away before his mother could amplify a suggestion which
spoiled a little of his pleasure in the praises--he thought they were
unqualified and enthusiastic praises--she had been heaping upon Alice.
He wished to go to bed with them all sweet and unalloyed in his thought,
to sleep, to dream upon his perfect triumph.

Mrs. Pasmer was a long time in undressing, and in calming down after
the demands which the different events of the evening had made upon her
resources.

"It has certainly been a very mixed evening, Alice," she said, as she
took the pins out of her back hair and let it fall; and she continued to
talk as she went back and forth between their rooms. "What do you think
of banjo-playing for young ladies? Isn't it rather rowdy? Decidedly
rowdy, I think. And Dan's Yankee story! I expected to see the old
gentleman get up and perform some trick."

"I suppose they do it to amuse Mrs. Mavering," said Alice, with cold
displeasure.

"Oh, it's quite right," tittered Mrs. Pasmer. "It would be as much as
their lives are worth if they didn't. You can see that she rules them
with a rod of iron. What a will! I'm glad you're not going to come
under her sway; I really think you couldn't be safe from her in the
same hemisphere; it's well you're going abroad at once. They're a very
self-concentrated family, don't you think--very self-satisfied? Of
course that's the danger of living off by themselves as they do: they
get to thinking there's nobody else in the world. You would simply be
absorbed by them: it's a hair-breadth escape.

"How splendidly Dan contrasts with the others! Oh, he's delightful;
he's a man of the world. Give me the world, after all! And he's so
considerate of their rustic conceit! What a house! It's perfectly
baronial--and ridiculous. In any other country it would mean
something--society, entertainments, troops of guests; but here it
doesn't mean anything but money. Not that money isn't a very good thing;
I wish we had