“Go on with you,” cried Miss Railing.
“Well, Louie, you are obstinate,” said her mother; and turning to Lady Sophia she added confidentially: “She ’as been—ever since she was a child.”
But the appearance of the stately Ponsonby with tea-things changed the conversation. Mrs. Railing looked round the room, and the Canon saw that her eyes rested on the magnificent portrait of the first Lord Spratte.
“That is my father, the late Lord Chancellor of England. It is a most admirable likeness.”
“It’s a very ’andsome frame,” said Mrs. Railing, anxious to be polite.
Lord Spratte burst out laughing.
“He is plain, isn’t he?”
“Oh, I didn’t mean it like that,” answered Mrs. Railing, with confusion, “I would never take such a liberty.”
“Now, you can’t honestly say he was a beauty, Mrs. Railing.”
“Thomas, remember he was my father,” inserted the Canon.