The girl's face flushed crimson.
"At the bottom we all despise foreigners and foreign ways," she said in self-defence. "Father does, Miles does, the Squire does. And they have all travelled; they have seen for themselves."
"They have travelled with their eyes open and their hearts closed," Mrs. Ingestre answered.
"How do you know, mother? You have never been out of England."
Mrs. Ingestre shook her head. A rather melancholy smile passed over her wan features.
"No," she said; "I have never been out of England, but I have been often, very often, ill, and during the long hours I have travelled great distances, and I have begun to think that God cannot surely have reserved all the virtues for us English. I fancy even the poor benighted Germans must have their share of heaven."
Nora laughed outright.
"I expect they have, now I come to think of it," she admitted gaily. "Mother, you are a much better Christian than father, though you won't call every one 'dearly beloved,' and you are yards better than I am. I can't help it—I despise all foreigners, especially——"
She stopped abruptly, and Mrs. Ingestre smiled.
"Still, you will try Karlsburg. It will be an experience for you, and you will hear good music. The family is a very old one, and perhaps the members, being of noble birth, may gobble less than the others."