"How nice it must be to live in England, and meet those dear, delightful earls, and dukes, and barons!" exclaimed Miss Framley, rapturously. "Did you ever know an earl or a duke, Major Ashton?"
"Yes, I made the acquaintance of an earl once. We were passengers on the same steamer."
"Dear me, what a privilege! And how did he look?"
"To the best of my remembrance he had the same number of eyes and ears as the rest of us."
"But didn't he look very distangay? Oh, how I should have admired to know him!"
"He seemed very plain-looking, and he was perhaps the worst dressed man among the passengers."
"That is so strange!"
Miss Framley's idea of an earl or a duke was a tall, majestic person, attired in purple and fine linen, with high-bred, aristocratic features, that might readily distinguish him from inferior beings.
"Oh, how I envy you the privilege of knowing him! Did you really become intimate?"
"Very!" answered Major Ashton, concealing under a grave face the amusement he felt. "He told me confidentially how disagreeable his mother-in-law, the Countess of Somerset, was, and asked my advice as to how to manage her."