“But you have the best company in your niece.”
“She!”--Pasco uttered a contemptuous sniff,--“she is no company. She either sits as a log or pesters one with questions. What do you think she has just asked of me?” Imitating Kate’s voice, he said, “Uncle, why have horses so many hairs in their ears? Why the dowse does it matter whether horses have hair in their ears or not? Now, schoolmaister, get up in front.”
Bramber still objected.
“Oh, nonsense!” said Pasco; “I’m taking you up so as to be freed from these questions. It is catechising, or nothing at all.”
Bramber looked uneasily at Kate’s face, but her countenance was unmoved; she was accustomed to contemptuous treatment. She raised her timid eyes to Walter, and he said hastily, with some earnestness--
“You and I, Mr. Pepperill, form very different opinions of what entertainment is. When I was having tea at your house, she and I had plenty to say to each other. I found her full of interest”--
“In what?” sneered the uncle.
“Daffodils.”
“Oh, daffodils!” he laughed. “Any ass likes daffodils.”
“Pardon me,” answered Bramber warmly; “the ass and animals of like nature reject or pass them by unnoticed.”