“He certainly is not brilliant,” remarked the mother.
“Humph,” growled the pater-familias, “that’s the way all you women go on. Brilliant! Fashionable! I don’t wonder marriage is a failure when I see what you like in men. That Stirling is worth all your dancing men, but just because he holds his tongue when he hasn’t a sensible thing to say, you think he’s no good.”
“Still he is ‘a nobody.’”
“He’s the fellow who made that big speech in the stump-tail milk case.”
“Not that man?”
“Exactly. But of course he isn’t ‘brilliant.’”
“I never should have dreamed it.”
“Still,” said the heir, “he keeps his eloquence for cows, and not for dinners.”
“He talked very well at Dr. Purple’s,” said the mamma, whose opinion of Peter had undergone a change.
“And he was invited to call by Mrs. Dupont and Mrs. Sizer, which is more than you’ve ever been,” said Avery senior to Avery junior.