"He certainly is not brilliant," remarked the mother.

"Humph," growled the pater-familias, "that's the way all you women go
on. Brilliant! Fashionable! I don't wonder marriage is a failure when I
see what you like in men. That Stirling is worth all your dancing men,
but just because he holds his tongue when he hasn't a sensible thing to
say, you think he's no good."

"Still he is 'a nobody.'"

"He's the fellow who made that big speech in the stump-tail milk case."

"Not that man?"

"Exactly. But of course he isn't 'brilliant.'"

"I never should have dreamed it."

"Still," said the heir, "he keeps his eloquence for cows, and not for
dinners."

"He talked very well at Dr. Purple's," said the mamma, whose opinion of
Peter had undergone a change.

"And he was invited to call by Mrs. Dupont and Mrs. Sizer, which is more
than you've ever been," said Avery senior to Avery junior.

"That's because of the prog," growled the son, seeing his opportunity to
square accounts quickly.