"That's just the name, ma'am. I never can remember it. It is the gentleman who always says to me if Mr. Howe is busy not to call him; that Mrs. Howe will do just as well," and Polly grinned behind her apron corner.
"How tiresome to call so early!" exclaimed Mrs. Howe, with ill-concealed delight. "Well, I suppose you must tell him that I will be down directly. Is the parlor all right, Mary?"
"Yes, ma'am, and Mr. Howe has just gone out."
This last remark, of course, was not heeded by Mrs. Howe, who was playing in a very indifferent manner with her cap strings.
"You must really excuse my robe-de-chambre, Mr. Finels," said Mrs. Howe, making use of the only French phrase she knew, to draw attention to her new negligée which a poor dress-maker had set up all night to finish for the present occasion.
"I could not have excused you had you not worn it," said Finels, quite accustomed to the little transparent trickeries of the sex, "it is in perfect taste, as is every thing you wear; and I feel more particularly flattered by your wearing it on the present occasion, because I consider that when a lady dispenses with etiquette in this way toward a gentleman friend, she pays a silent compliment to the good sense of her visitor," and Finels made one of his Chesterfieldian bows, and placed his right hand on his velvet vest. "Beside, my dear madam, one who is so superior as yourself to all the adornments of dress, should at any rate be exempt from the tyranny of custom."
"Oh, thank you," minced Mrs. Howe, playing with her robe tassels, and trying to improvise a blush.
"Here is a volume of poems which I had the luck to stumble upon yesterday. I have brought them to you, because I like to share such a pleasure with an appreciative spirit," said the wily Finels, who always complimented a woman for some mental, or physical perfection, of which she knew herself to be entirely destitute. "It is a book I could speak of to but few persons, for I hoard such a treasure as a miser does his gold."
Mrs. Howe really—blushed with pleasure. The diplomatic Finels was not astonished, he was accustomed to such results.