That was charming, though he did pay my country a compliment at my
expense. One likes, of course, to have the type recognised as fine;
at the same time his remark would have been more flattering if it
had been less sweeping.

When I remember that he offered me his ancestors, asked me to drive
two hundred and eighty miles, and likened me to champagne, I feel
that, with my heart already occupied and my hand promised, I could
hardly have accomplished more in the course of a single dinner-hour.



Chapter VII. Francesca meets th' unconquer'd Scot.



Francesca's experiences were not so fortunate; indeed, I have never
seen her more out of sorts than she was during our long chat over
the fire, after our return to Breadalbane Terrace.

"How did you get on with your delightful minister?" inquired
Salemina of the young lady, as she flung her unoffending wrap over
the back of a chair. "He was quite the handsomest man in the room;
who is he?"

"He is the Reverend Ronald Macdonald, and the most disagreeable,
condescending, ill-tempered prig I ever met!"

"Why, Francesca!" I exclaimed. "Lady Baird speaks of him as her