"In the Humber," very consciously.
"Were you there?" asked Bertie, with a tender inflection in his voice, that Bluebell knew well. But she would not look up, and Miss Opie did, so he proceeded carelessly,—"I suppose they were coming from the Lake Shore Road, up the serpentine drive in the wood?"
"Oh! that is such a pretty walk in summer!" said Mrs. Leigh.
"I dare say," said Bertie, looking straight down his nose. "I went round that way once, and even in winter found it the pleasantest walk I ever took in my life."
"Ah, then," said Mrs. Leigh, knowingly, "I dare say some pretty young lady was with you."
"No such happiness," said Bertie, with an imperceptible glance at Bluebell. "The fact is, Mrs. Leigh, women detest me! I suppose it is my deep respect, making me so fearful of offending, that bores them; but I fear I am a social failure."
"In my day," said Miss Opie, ironically, "young ladies expected to be treated with respect."
"And that could not have been so long ago; yet now they are beyond a bashful man's comprehension," said Bertie, with an air of simplicity, slightly scanning Miss Opie's wakeful face. He had got on so well with the mamma, who was this old maid, who appeared so objectionably on the alert?
"Well, I am sure," said Mrs. Leigh, "some girls here are that pert and forward, I can't bear it myself; and yet the gentlemen all encourage it, and think it real smart. Lilla Tremaine, you know, Aunt Jane."
"Ah!" said Bertie, shaking his head, "a very unsteady young person."