Her insular notions of propriety
rose in perpetual revolt against Pesca's constitutional contempt for
appearances; and she was always more or less undisguisedly astonished
at her mother's familiarity with the eccentric little foreigner. I
have observed, not only in my sister's case, but in the instances of
others, that we of the young generation are nothing like so hearty and
so impulsive as some of our elders. I constantly see old people
flushed and excited by the prospect of some anticipated pleasure which
altogether fails to ruffle the tranquillity of their serene
grandchildren. Are we, I wonder, quite such genuine boys and girls now
as our seniors were in their time? Has the great advance in education
taken rather too long a stride; and are we in these modern days, just
the least trifle in the world too well brought up?

Without attempting to answer those questions decisively, I may at least
record that I never saw my mother and my sister together in Pesca's
society, without finding my mother much the younger woman of the two.
On this occasion, for example, while the old lady was laughing heartily
over the boyish manner in which we tumbled into the parlour, Sarah was
perturbedly picking up the broken pieces of a teacup, which the
Professor had knocked off the table in his precipitate advance to meet
me at the door.

"I don't know what would have happened, Walter," said my mother, "if
you had delayed much longer. Pesca has been half mad with impatience,
and I have been half mad with curiosity. The Professor has brought
some wonderful news with him, in which he says you are concerned; and
he has cruelly refused to give us the smallest hint of it till his
friend Walter appeared."

"Very provoking: it spoils the Set," murmured Sarah to herself,
mournfully absorbed over the ruins of the broken cup.

While these words were being spoken, Pesca, happily and fussily
unconscious of the irreparable wrong which the crockery had suffered at
his hands, was dragging a large arm-chair to the opposite end of the
room, so as to command us all three, in the character of a public
speaker addressing an audience. Having turned the chair with its back
towards us, he jumped into it on his knees, and excitedly addressed his
small congregation of three from an impromptu pulpit.

"Now, my good dears," began Pesca (who always said "good dears" when he
meant "worthy friends"), "listen to me. The time has come--I recite my
good news