"What young man?" she asked, as though the Ridge Springs were thronged with young men behind every bush.
"That young man--Mr. Keith," firmly.
"Oh!" said Alice. "With Mr. Keith? Yes, mamma?" Her color was changing quickly now.
"Yes, I have had a quite--a very extraordinary conversation with Mr. Keith." As Mrs. Yorke drifted again into reflection, Alice was compelled to ask:
"What about, mamma?"
"About you."
"About me? What about me?" Her face was belying her assumed innocence.
"Alice, I hope you are not going to behave foolishly. I cannot believe for a minute that you would--a girl brought up as you have been--so far forget yourself--would allow yourself to become interested in a perfectly unknown and ignorant and obscure young man."
"Why, mamma, he is not ignorant; he knows more than any one I ever saw,--why, he has read piles of books I never even heard of,--and his family is one of the best and oldest in this country. His grandfathers or great-grandfathers were both signers of the Decla--"
"I am not talking about that," interrupted Mrs. Yorke, hastily. "I must say you appear to have studied his family-tree pretty closely."