"Julia thinks she's awfully nice."
This rather in the tone of "there's no accounting for tastes."
"Yes," said her father, not seeming enough impressed.
"She says I may read The H—— Family and all the Frederika Bremer books now that I've finished the Waverleys."
"H'm! I never looked at them myself."
"But do you know why she was so nice about The H—— Family?" It was one thing to do justice to her good deeds, but it was no use setting up a false ideal and pretending she was better than she was. "You see, we'd read all the horrid silly little Harry and Lucys and Sandford and Mertons and Moral Tales and things, and I'd begun Bohn's Wilhelm Meister."
"Oh, ho!"
"I put down the book while I tied my shoe, and when I looked up she was putting it into the fire."
He laughed.