id), we have just made
acquaintance; but I am quite disposed to like or dislike them,
according to the report you make of them."

"The Miss Farnleys (he replied) have been brought almost
entirely abroad, and are, perhaps, not spoilt, but certainly
fashioned by this circumstance. The oldest is not the least
affected in manner, nor indeed in conversation, except that
one is willing to attribute to affectation the very silly
things which an otherwise intelligent person is in the habit
of saying."

"What kind of things?"

"Why, for instance, she will tell you that she cannot exist
without flowers, and therefore keeps loads of them in her room
at night, though they give her a raging headache. But don't
think her silly (though it is difficult to help it, I own),
for this very girl, when she broke her arm last year,
submitted to the most painful operation without a groan, in
order that her father, who was ill at the time, should not be
agitated or alarmed, though, when he left the room, she
fainted from the intensity of agony. Do not think her wicked,
if she tells you that she pines to be overturned in a
carriage, or to be wrecked at sea; if she boasts that she
throws out of window the medicines that are prescribed for
her, or that she swallows poison, to try how she feels after
it; for she risked her life a few months ago to save a
drowning child; and when the village near their country place
was on fire, she went about among the distracted people like
an angel of mercy. Do not, therefore, think her silly, wicked,
or mad, whatever she may say to you, but only wonder where she
learnt that to seem so was a charm."

"And her sister, that girl with a Grecian profile and straight
eyebrows?"

"That girl, who sometimes is hardly pretty, and at other times
perfectly beautiful, is very clever, though she too says silly
things now and then, but quite in a different line. She is
original and agreeable, though she lisps and drawls, till the
spirit within her is roused. She is very provoking if you
dislike her; still more so, perhaps, if you like her. In
short, I hardly know which to recommend you to do; only, I am
sure if you do like her, you will like her very much, and will
better spare a better woman--Lady Wyndham, for instance."

"And that little Miss Moore, who is sitting over her book with
a look of such intense enjoyment in her large eyes, what
account do you give of her?"

"Oh, everybody doats upon the little Irish