"Would you say of all?" asked the actor's wife.
"No!" said the other lady, "no, not of all!" and her husband was glad to stand corrected.
"No," he admitted, "but still of almost all; faults of which we may almost say, sir, that we may almost be proud!"
"Oh, well," begged his wife, "please almost don't say it! They're the faults of our 'peculiar institution' and I wish our 'peculiar institution' were—" She sewed hard.
"In the deep bosom of the ocean buried," suggested her husband to the players. "Why, honestly, so do I. But it's not, and can't be, and as long as it can't be we——"
"Oh, well," said his wife, "don't let's begin on that."
Reckless of institutions Ramsey turned. "Is my brother worse?" she broke in, but a white-jacket entered with the dinner-bell and spoke softly to old Joy. "Yes," said Ramsey to him, "I'm Miss Hayle. What is it? Is my brother worse?"
"Miss Hayle, Mr. Hugh Co'teney make his comp'ments——"
Ramsey laughed in relief.
"Yass'm, an' say' cap'm cayn' come to de table an' yo' ma she cayn't come——"