“Always uncompromising, Lady Jane!” the colonel cried.
“I assure you, colonel, when Lady begins to mark iniquities, few of us stand!”
Jane smiled gravely, as on two children. “You know very well that is nonsense,” she said.
Black Hannah appeared in the door, beaming and curtsying to the colonel.
“You-all ready foh yoh tea, Miss Lady?” she inquired.
A sudden recollection threw Mrs. Leroy into one of her irresistible fits of gentle laughter.
“Oh, Lady,” she murmured, “do you remember that impossible creature that lectured me about Hannah's asking you for orders? Did I tell you about it, colonel?”
Jane shook her head reprovingly.
“Now, mother dearest, you always make him out worse—”
“Worse, my darling? Worse is a word that couldn't be applied to that man. Worse is comparative. Positive he certainly was, superlative is mild, but comparative—never!”