'Twelve miles. Suppose we went by railway, and took a boat up from Ewmouth. What do you say to that, Daisy?'
'That I have had quite enough specimens of the family in Master Bernard and his clerical brother.'
'You liked the former specimens well enough. Eh! Do you remember Daisiana?'
An angry flush rose to Gertrude May's cheeks, but she tried to answer composedly, 'The man-kind, as Ethel calls them, are no matter; but what can woman-kind be, after a life-struggle to preserve gentility over a stationer's shop?'
'The more reason they should be susceptible to mortification from their father's old friends,' said Dr. May, as he left the room.
'No, you can't get off, Daisy,' said Ethel. 'It must be done, and I only wish it could be a little later, for fear we should inflict more vexation than pleasure.'
'No; it can't be helped. He is going to run a-muck and take us in his train,' said the spoilt child, shrugging her shoulders.
On the Thursday morning, at the Vale Leston breakfast-table it was, 'The first thing is to make the drawing-room habitable before any one calls.'
'No one will presume on such barbarity till after Sunday!' exclaimed Cherry.
'Unless the Miss Hepburns should—' said Wilmet.