"The eldest of those nieces?"
"Yes;—the eldest."
"I cannot believe it."
"Mamma, they both told me so. I have sworn an eternal friendship with her already."
"I did not see you speaking to her."
"But I did talk to her a great deal."
"And he is really going to marry that dreadful woman?"
"Dreadful, mamma!"
"Perfectly awful! She talked to me in a way that I have read about in books, but which I did not before believe to be possible. Do you mean that he is going to be married to that hideous old maid,—that bell-clapper?"
"Oh, mamma, what slander! I think her so pretty."