They wouldn't look at French modern paintings, and on principle the entire family only lives to protest against modern morals. They always use the best brand of words and thoughts, I even believe their dreams have an ethical basis and a theological bias, and they are such a devoted family; they have little family ways, and little family quotations, and select high-class little jokes of a literary turn. Ah, they are charming and so naîve! But you see they cannot naturally judge by comparison, and they are just a little--ah, they are my dear friends! I am a wretch, and should not say it--ah, but they are'--
'Intolerable, I should say,' I remarked frankly.
Where did this young person get her little French turns and twists and modes of speech from, I should like to know? Her shrugs were got on French soil, I felt quite convinced.
'Ah, Mrs. Vallings, I would never have said that,' she cried, the artlessness coming to the surface at a gush.
'She is afraid of herself,' I thought shrewdly. 'Highly as these people entertain her, she daren't let it all out.'
'Of course you wouldn't,' I answered placidly. 'You are of the neighbourhood; I am a stranger, and quite free to speak my mind. But how, then, do these provincial people get on here--with those delicious Carew girls, for instance?'
'Ah, you see, they are gentle-people, and up here the society is limited.'
