said, half laughingly:

"You are quite as much prejudiced against _Rouge et Noir_ as your
brother, for when I told him I tried my luck at Monte-Carlo and won
twenty-five dollars, he seemed horrified, and I think it took him some
hours to regard me with favor again."

"Yes, and he had reason. The McPhersons have all good cause to abhor the
very name of gambling," Miss McPherson replied, hitching her chair a
little further away from Geraldine as from something poisonous; then, in
her characteristic way of suddenly changing the conversation, she said:
"You saw my nephew, Neil McPherson?"

"Oh, yes," Mrs. Jerrold replied. "We saw a good deal of him; he is very
fine-looking, with such gentlemanly manners for a boy. I should be glad
if Grey would imitate him," and she glanced at her son, on whose face a
cloud instantly fell.

Miss McPherson saw it, and turning to him she asked:

"How did you like Neil? Boys are sometimes better judges of each other
than older people. Did you think him very nice?"

Remembering Miss McPherson's love for the _naked truth_, Grey spoke out
boldly.

"No, madam; at first I did not like him at all. We had a fight!"

"A fight!" Miss McPherson repeated, in surprise, as did both Hannah and
Lucy simultaneously, while Mrs. Jerrold interposed:

"I think, Grey, I would not mention that, as it reflects no credit upon
you."

"But he insulted me first," Grey replied, and Miss McPherson insisted:

"Tell it, Grey, and do not omit anything, because I am his aunt. Tell it
exactly as it was. I want the truth."

Thus encouraged, Grey began: "I know I did not do right, but he made me
so angry. It was the Fourth of July and we were at Melrose stopping at
the George Inn, while Mr. McPherson's family were at the Abbey Hotel
close to the old ruin. There were several Americans at our house, and
because of that the proprietor hung out our national flag. It was such a
lovely morning, and when I went into the street and saw the Stars and
Stripes waving in the English wind, I hurrahed with all my might and
threw up my cap in the air.

"'May I ask why you are making so much noise?' somebody said close to
me, and turning round I saw a lad about my own age, wearing a tall
stove-pipe hat, for he was an Eton boy.

"His manner provoked me quite as much as his words, it was so
overbearing, and picking up my cap, I said: 'Why, it's the Fourth of
July, and that is the Star-spangled Banner!'

"'Star-spangled fiddles