"So we have," says he; "it will assemble in a few minutes, so we must hurry and get into the House."
"Why don't Congress assemble in this building?" says I.
"Of course it does, at the other end," says he.
"Then what on earth do you want to take me into any other house for? I want to see Congress! As for the houses in Washington, they are no great shakes, after all. New York wouldn't take the best of 'em as a gift."
"Cousin Phœmie," says Dempster, sort of impatient, "you are the most extraordinary combination of a woman I ever saw."
I stopped short and made him a curtsey to the ground—slow, graceful, and infinitely sarcastic. He seemed to feel it keenly.
"Judges, a little more competent than you are, have said as much before," I observed, scathing him through and through with my eyes.
"I mean no offence," says he, "but really you are the brightest, and—and stupidest woman!"
"Girl, if you please," says I.
"Well, girl. In some things a child could teach you; in others, you fairly dazzle the brightest of us."