"And how do you like this part of the world?"
"Very much indeed."
"Humph! I would not have thought you were so easily pleased; it will seem uncommonly dull after all your fine times in the East; there you had balls, and parties, and admirers by the score."
Helen drew up her neck, and looked dignified, and he said to himself, "Ha, ha, my fine madam, I'll have to take you down a peg, if that's your style."
"Had you a comfortable situation in London at that school?"
"Yes, thank you," she replied haughtily.
"Well, we shall not allow you to go back this long time! Dido, we must take Helen (could she believe her ears?) over to the band at Terryscreen next week. I'LL treat you all at the hotel. You don't mind me calling you Helen, do you? You know we are all cousins here!" concluded Barry, with a discriminating readiness to claim kinship with a pretty girl.
"Yes," he said to himself, "Katie and Dido were not bad in their way, but this new connection was really splendid!"
In his mind's eye he already saw himself proudly parading her at the band, and driving his intimates, and maybe the officers (who were not his intimates) simply mad with envy.
She was a little bit stiff now, but that would soon wear off.