"There you go with that 'ma'am' again!"
"Hardly, Mary," mumbled Mrs. De Peyster.
"Because if she looks anything like that picture, it must simply scare you to death to live with her. Did she ever bend her back?"
Silence.
"Or smile?"
Silence.
"Or forget that she was a De Peyster?"
Silence.
"The lady of that picture never did!" declared the little person with conviction. "She's just dignity and pride—calm, remote, lofty, icebergy pride. She can say her ancestors backwards. Why, she's her family tree, petrified!"
Mrs. De Peyster did not feel called upon to add to these remarks.