with the best means at hand—a sure mark of superiority.
When he alighted from his ancient buggy, Constance advanced to meet him, and greeted him with a cordiality which inspired Mr. Mulligan with admiration and hope. He did not know that Southerners in their own habitat meet every guest, however undesirable, with the same overflowing cordiality, which is reckoned as merely good manners. Senator Mulligan, however, thought this custom of generations a special tribute to himself, and gloated over that cool, supercilious Thorndyke, who had smiled in a superior manner at the Senator's predicament at Roseboro' station. So he replied genially to Constance's greeting:
"As you were good enough to ask me to call, and as I don't know how long I'll be in these parts, I said to myself, 'Faith, I'll pay Miss Maitland a visit this very afternoon.' And here I am with this ould cruelty cart, when I've got a stable full of horses at home, and a Panhard red devil that cost me six thousand dollars to buy and a thousand a year to keep—but, like the butterfly, I get there just the same."
