‘It is all in the way of trade,’ said Percy.
‘Reviewing?’ said Theodora.
‘Yes; there has been such an absurd amount of flattery bestowed on them that it must provoke any reasonable being. It really is time to put forth a little common sense, since the magazines will have it that earls write better than other people.’
‘Some of the verses in Lord St. Erme’s last volume seem to me very pretty,’ said Violet.
‘There, she is taking up the cudgels for her countryman,’ said Arthur, always pleased when she put herself forward.
‘Which do you mean?’ said Percy, turning on her incredulously.
‘I like those about the Bay of Naples,’ she answered.
‘You do not mean these?’ and he read them in so good-humoured a tone that no one could be vexed, but marking every inconsistent simile and word tortured out of its meaning, and throwing in notes and comments on the unfaithfulness of the description.
‘There! it would do as well for the Bay of Naples as for the farm-yard at Martindale—all water and smoke.’
Arthur and Theodora laughed, but Violet stood her ground, blushingly but resolutely.