"Master Cleve can certainly be agreeable when he chooses; and you think him devilish good-looking—don't you?"
"I really can't say—he has very good features—but——"
"But what? Why every one allows that Verney's as good-looking a fellow as you'll meet with anywhere," persisted the Captain.
"I think him perfectly be-autiful!" said Miss Charity, who never liked people by halves.
"Well—yes—he may be handsome," said Miss Agnes. "I'm no very great critic; but I can't conceive any girl falling in love with him."
"Oh! as to that—but—why?" said Captain Shapnell.
"His face, I think, is so selfish—somehow," she said.
"Is it now, really?—how?" asked the Captain. "I'm am-azed at you!" exclaimed Miss Charity.
"Well, there's a selfish hook—no, not a hook, a curve—of his nose, and a cruel crook of his shoulder," said Miss Agnes, in search of faults.
"You're determined to hit him by hook or by crook—ha, ha, ha—I say," pursued the Captain.