"And I am sure," Mrs. Cockayne continued, "it is quite refreshing, after the boorish manners of your London shopkeepers, to be waited upon by these polite Frenchmen. They behave like noblemen."
"Mamma has had fifty compliments paid to her in the course of the day, I am certain," said Sophonisba.
"I am very glad to hear it," said Sophonisba's papa.
"Glad to hear it, and surprised also, I suppose, Mr. Cockayne! In London twenty compliments have to last a lady her lifetime."
"I don't know how it is," Theodosia observed, "but the tradespeople here have a way of doing things that is enchanting. We went into an imition jeweller's in the Rue Vivienne—and such imitations! I'll defy Mrs. Sandhurst—and you know how ill-natured she is—to tell some earrings and brooches we saw from real gold and jewels. Well, what do you think was the sign of the shop, which was arranged more like a drawing-room than a tradesman's place of business; why, it was called L'Ombre du Vrai (the Shadow of Truth). Isn't it quite poetical?"
Mr. Cockayne thought he saw his opportunity for an oratorical flourish.
"It has been observed, my dear Theo," said he, dipping the fingers of his right hand into the palm of his left, "by more than one acute observer, that the mind of the race whose country we are now——"
Here Mrs. Cockayne rapped sharply the marble table before her with the end of her parasol, and said—
"Mr. Cockayne, have you ordered any dinner for us?"
Mr. Cockayne meekly gave it up, and replied that he had secured places for the party at the table d'hôte.