“Let me tell you something, Elsie,” said Uncle in his fatherly way. “It is my guess that her ladyship was not hunting corsets at all, nor was she making purchases for impoverished ladies; she was really talking for effect.”
“Uncle, how ungenerous of you!” I exclaimed.
“I know for a fact that Sir Thomas Billings is in Toronto to-day, so she is not entertaining him this evening.”
“Oh!” I cried, flabbergasted.
“When you know more of the world, little niece—” he said.
“When you know more of the world, Little Partner,” this from Mr. Bang.
“But Uncle how do people tolerate such a fraud?” I put in.
“Tolerate! why people like it: it never deceives: it only amuses. Mrs. Mount and her sayings have amused us for twenty years.”
“Disgusting!” I felt annoyed.
“I suppose your experience has not been large enough to teach you philosophy enough for that,” put in Mr. Bang. Like his cheek to be patronizing me!