"Can't you?" said Fleda. "I am sure many a time I have felt as if you had left me nothing but my colours."
"Except your prizes, my dear. I am sure I don't know about your being a friend either, for I have observed that you engage English and American alike."
"She is getting up her colours now," said Mrs. Evelyn in mock gravity,--"you can tell what she is."
"Blood-red!" said Constance. "A pirate!--I thought so,"--she exclaimed, with an ecstatic gesture. "I shall make it my business to warn everybody!"
"Oh Constance!" said Fleda, burying her face in her hands. But they all laughed.
"Fleda my dear, I would box her ears," said Mrs. Evelyn commanding herself. "It is a mere envious insinuation,--I have always understood those were the most successful colours carried."
"Dear Mrs. Evelyn!--"
"My dear Fleda, that is not a hot roll--you sha'n't eat it--Take this. Florence give her a piece of the bacon--Fleda my dear, it is good for the digestion--you must try it. Constance was quite mistaken in supposing yours were those obnoxious colours--there is too much white with the red--it is more like a very different flag."
"Like what then, mamma?" said Constance;--"a good American would have blue in it."
"You may keep the American yourself," said her mother.