you, and I scarcely blame her.'

'No such thing; there was no thought of preference in the matter. If
you were not one of those fellows who mistake an illustration, and see
everything in a figure but the parallel, I should say that I had trained
too finely. Now had she been thoroughbred, I was all right; as a cocktail,
I was all wrong.'

'I own I cannot follow you.'

'Well, the woman was angry, and she married that fellow out of pique.'

'Out of pique?'

'I repeat it. It was a pure case of temper. I would not ask her to sing. I
even found fault with the way she gave the rebel ballad. I told her there
was an old lady--Americanly speaking--at the corner of College Green, who
enunciated the words better, and then I sat down to whist, and would not
even vouchsafe a glance in return for those looks of alternate rage or
languishment she threw across the table. She was frantic. I saw it. There
was nothing she wouldn't have done. I vow she'd have married even _you_
at that moment. And with all that, she'd not have done it if she'd been
"clean-bred." Come, come, don't flare up, and look as if you'd strike me.
On the mother's side she was a Kearney, and all the blood of loyalty in her
veins; but there must have been something wrong with the Prince of Delos.
Dido was very angry, but her breeding saved her; _she_ didn't take a
head-centre because she quarrelled with AEneas.'

'You are, without exception, the most conceited--'

'No, not ass--don't say ass, for I'm nothing of the kind. Conceited, if you
like, or rather if your natural politeness insists on saying it, and cannot
distinguish between the vanity of a puppy and the self-consciousness
of real power; but come, tell me of something pleasanter than all this
personal discussion--how did mademoiselle convey her tidings? have you seen
her note? was it "transport"? was it high-pitched, or apologetic?'

'Kate read it to me, and I thought it reasonable enough. She had done a
daring thing, and she knew it; she hoped the best, and in any case she was
not faint-hearted.'

'Any mention of me?'

'Not a word--your name does not occur.'

'I thought not; she had not pluck for that. Poor girl, the blow is heavier
than I meant it.'

'She speaks of Walpole; she incloses a few lines to him, and tells my
sister where she will find a small packet of trinkets and such like he had
given her.'

'Natural enough all that. There was no earthly reason why she shouldn't be
able to talk