I
threw all manners to the winds after that and told him that there were
no husbands in the world like American men, and that foreigners never
seemed to have any proper consideration for women. Now, were my remarks
any worse than his, after all, and what shall I do about it anyway?"

"You should go to bed first," I murmured sleepily; "and if you ever have
an opportunity to make amends, which I doubt, you should devote yourself
to showing the Reverend Ronald the breadth of your own horizon instead
of trying so hard to broaden his. As you are extremely pretty, you may
possibly succeed; man is human, and I dare say in a month you will
be advising him to love somebody more worthy than yourself. (He could
easily do it!) Now don't kiss me again, for I am displeased with you; I
hate international bickering!"

"So do I," agreed Francesca virtuously, as she plaited her hair, "and
there is no spectacle so abhorrent to every sense as a narrow-minded man
who cannot see anything outside of his own country. But he is awfully
good-looking,--I will say that for him: and if you don't explain me to
Lady Baird, I will write to Mr. Beresford about the earl. There was
no bickering there; it was looking at you two that made us think of
international marriages."

"It must have suggested to you that speech about filling the coffers of
the British nobility," I replied sarcastically, "inasmuch as the earl
has twenty thousand pounds a year, probably, and I could barely buy two
gold hairpins to pin on the coronet. There, do go away and leave me in
peace!"

"Good night again, then," she said, as she rose reluctantly from the
foot of the bed. "I doubt if I can sleep for thinking what a pity it
is that such an egotistic, bumptious, pugnacious, prejudiced, insular,
bigoted person should be so handsome! And who wants to marry him any
way, that he should be so distressed about international alliances?
One would think that all female America was sighing to lead him to the
altar!"

Chapter VIII. 'What made th' Assembly shine?'

Two or three days ago we noted an unusual though subdued air of
excitement at 22 Breadalbane Terrace, where for a week we had been
the sole lodgers. Mrs. Menzies, whom we call Mingess, has returned
to Kilconquhar, which she calls Kinyuchar; Miss Cockburn-Sinclair has
purchased her wedding outfit and gone back to Inverness, where she
will be greeted as Coburn-Sinkler; the Hepburn-Sciennes will be leaving
to-morrow, j