"Ah, I thought you could not fail to be pleased with her," Mr. Dinsmore said, looking much gratified, "and I knew you were when you bade her call you aunt. I imagine she had been a little troubled to decide just how she was to address you."
"Well, since I find she is not the sort one need feel ashamed of, I've no objection to her claiming relationship, though there is none at all in point of fact; but if she had proved the awkward, ungainly, uncouth girl I expected, I should have requested her to call me Mrs. Dinsmore," remarked that lady languidly. "I wonder if she has much shopping to do? I hope not, for I really do not feel equal to the exertion of assisting her."
"Driving about in a carriage and sitting in the stores; I should not think it need be so very fatiguing," remarked her husband.
"Of course not, Mr. Dinsmore; men never do see why anything should fatigue their wives," she retorted with some petulance.
"Then Miss Worth and I will have to manage it between us. You expect her to-day, do you not?"
"She was to come to-day; but of course she won't. People never do as they promise. The fact is she oughtn't to have gone at all, leaving me here alone with servants and children; so selfish and inconsiderate!"
"But, my dear, it would have been very hard for her to go back without having spent a short time with her family."
"And her pleasure is to be considered before my comfort, of course."
"Really, I had hoped your comfort had not been neglected," Mr. Dinsmore said, in a tone of some irritation, as he glanced from the richly attired figure in the easy chair, opposite his own, to the luxurious appointments of the room; "what more can you wish?"