She glanced interrogatively at the girl, who turned towards the mantelpiece, and said, “Fifteen, by the clock.”
“Well, it seemed like five,” he said; “my new cousin had so many curious things to tell me. Now I must be off and dress”; and he departed, leaving Joseline and her stepmother tête-à-tête.
“But, dearest child, I was given to understand that you were painfully shy,” she was beginning, when, to the girl’s immense relief, the door opened again, and several of the guests came into the room, followed by her father.
“And how has my little girl been getting on?” he asked, as he joined her.
“Oh, very well so far, and I’ve just made acquaintance with Dudley Deverell.”
“And what do you think of him?”
“I cannot answer that just yet; but I can tell you what he thinks—of me.”
“Really!”
“That I am a new sort of foreign curiosity. I may be gold, or I may be brass! I’m sure he suspects there’s a bit of brass about me!”