"If you won't behave yourself, Roane, you must get out of the car. And for heaven's sake, stop calling me by that name!"
"My dear sister, I thought it was yours."
"It is not the one I'm known by." She was clearly annoyed. "By the way, have you got your costume for the tableaux? You were so outrageous at Mrs. Miller's the other night that if they could find anybody else, I believe that they would refuse to let you take part. Why are you so dreadful, Roane?"
"They require me, not my virtue, sister. Go over the list of young men in your set, and tell me if there is another Saint George of England among them?"
His air of mocking pride was so comic that a smile curved Caroline's lips, while Angelica commented seriously, "Well, you aren't nearly so good-looking as you used to be, and if you go on drinking much longer, you will be a perfect fright."
"How she blights my honourable ambition!" exclaimed Roane to Caroline. "Even the cherished career of a tableau favourite is forbidden me."
"Mother is going to be Peace," said Letty, with her stately manner of making conversation, "and she will look just like an angel. Her dress has come all the way from New York, Uncle Roane, and they sent a wreath of leaves to go on her head. If I don't get sick, Miss Meade is going to take me to see her Friday night."
"Well, if I am brother to Peace, Letty, I must be good. Miss Meade, how do you like Richmond?"
"I love it," answered Caroline, relieved by his abrupt change of tone. "The people are so nice. There is Mrs. Colfax now. Isn't she beautiful?"
They were running into Monument Avenue, and Daisy Colfax had just waved to them from a passing car.