"Oh, indeed! and what are his other virtues?"
"Perhaps you may think him coarse and countrified, and too fond of contradicting every word you say, and laying down the law; but he is a very good fellow in the main, if you take him the right way."
"And what is the right way? Please instruct me, in order that I may find him a very good fellow!"
"Well; pretend that you think he is conferring a great, great favour, and he will do anything for you. He can stand any amount of blarney, but no contradiction!"
"Strictly between ourselves, my little Katie, I don't think I shall like this cousin of yours."
"Exactly what he said of you," she exclaimed, clapping her hands in great glee. "He declared you would be a stuck-up English girl, with a grand accent, and a great opinion of yourself. He said you were sure to have had your head turned by all the attention you had received in those islands."
"Well, if it was,—which I do not admit,—it has had ample time to go back again. Governesses are not often the spoiled darlings of society."
"But you are not a bit like a governess."
"Am I not? You should see me at Mrs. Kane's."
"Barry wondered very much that you came home unmarried," continued Katie, who knew not the meaning of the words reticence and discretion, and delighted in the sound of her own voice. "He said it was either of two things——" pausing meditatively.