WE VISIT A ROOM IN THE SECOND STOREY
Mr. Carysbroke amused my fancy sufficiently to prevent my observing Milly's silence, till we had begun our return homeward.
'The Grange must be a pretty house, if that little sketch be true; is it far from this?'
''Twill be two mile.'
'Are you vexed, Milly?' I asked, for both her tone and looks were angry.
'Yes, I am vexed; and why not lass?'
'What has happened?'
'Well, now, that is rich! Why, look at that fellow, Carysbroke: he took no more notice to me than a dog, and kep' talking to you all the time of his pictures, and his walks, and his people. Why, a pig's better manners than that.'
'But, Milly dear, you forget, he tried to talk to you, and you would not answer him,' I expostulated.
'And is not that just what I say—I can't talk like other folk—ladies, I mean. Every one laughs at me; an' I'm dressed like a show, I am. It's a shame! I saw Polly Shives—what a lady she is, my eyes!—laughing at me in church last Sunday. I was minded to give her a bit of my mind. An' I know I'm queer. It's a shame, it is. Why should I be so rum? it is a shame! I don't want to be so, nor it isn't my fault.'