"And then you know, Harry, I haven't the least talent for being hard and sharp," said Eva, "and so I may as well take the advantages of my sort of nature."
"Certainly you may; people never succeed out of their own line."
"Then there's another trouble. I'm afraid Aunt Maria is going to interfere with Alice, as she tried to do with me. She said that everybody was talking about her intimacy with Jim, and that if I didn't speak to Alice she must."
"Confound that woman," said Harry; "she's an unmitigated old fool! She's as bad as a runaway steam engine; somebody ought to seize and lock her up."
"Come, sir, keep a civil tongue about my relations," said Eva, laughing.
"Well, I must let off a little to you, just to lower steam to the limits of Christian moderation."
"Alice isn't as fond of Aunt Maria as I am, and has a high spirit of her own, and I'm afraid it will make a terrible scene if Aunt Maria attacks her, so I suppose I must talk to her myself; but what do you think of Jim, Harry? Is there anything in it, on his part?"
"How can I say? you know just as much as I do and no more, and you are a better judge of human nature than I am."
"Well, would you like it to have Alice take Jim—supposing there were anything."
"Why, yes, very well, if she wants him."