"A sensible young man, indeed," ventured the New Brunswicker, for such he evidently was in his unconventional aspect and easy-going habits.
On the evening of the same day the same gentlemen held a second conversation, but this time it was not in a dingy lawyer's office. The scene was a neat and pretty drawing-room, with all the necessary adornments native to such an apartment, and also a higher class of adornment—that of several interesting and fascinating women.
"Home, sweet home," exclaimed Mr. Metcalfe, taking up the newspaper which Marguerite Verne had just laid aside. "I see you don't forget our old sheets. Well, they do look familiar."
"I must be very deeply engaged when I cannot find time to run over the Telegraph and Sun—the former I have read since I was able to spell the words. It occupies a warm spot in my affections," said Marguerite, smiling, while the soft roseate blushes rose in sweet confusion upon her face.
"You are a Grit, I presume, Miss Verne," said the host. "I see that your favorite journal advocates that policy?"
"I cannot say that I am, Mr. Stanhope. I have many friends on that side, but really my sympathies go with the present government."
"Then you should transfer your affections to its leading New
Brunswick organ, Miss Verne," said the New Brunswicker.
"I admire it upon principle, sir. But pardon me, I am not versed in politics, and cannot express myself upon the subject," exclaimed Marguerite, taking up the Sun to have a second glance at the locals which graced its columns.
"Not versed in politics, Marguerite! Do I hear aright?" cried a vivacious and interesting maiden of medium height and fair proportion, with an air of hauteur in her bearing characteristic of a model English girl.
The speaker was the lawyer's only daughter—a clever conversationalist and well read in all those branches of literature which elevate and ennoble the mind, and if applied to the female character make woman more than a kind of being that can only talk about what she eats, drinks, and more than all, what she wears and what her neighbor wears; discuss the latest bit of scandal and take a superficial view of everything upon which she languidly condescends to pass judgment.