'At any rate, Captain Hibbert seems to think there is no one like Olive;
and they'd make a handsome couple. What do you think, Alice? Is there
any chance of there being a match?'

'I really can't tell you, Mrs. Gould. Olive, as you say, is a very
beautiful girl, and I suppose Captain Hibbert admires her; but I don't
think that either has, up to the present, thought of the matter more
seriously.'

'You must admit, Alice, that he seems a bit gone on her,' said May, with
a direct determination to annoy her mother.

'May, dear, you shouldn't talk in that slangy way; you never used to;
you have picked it up from Mr. Scully. Do you know Mr. Scully, Alice?
Violet's brother.'

'Yes, I met him the night we dined at Lord Dungory's.'

'Oh, of course you did. Well, I admit I don't like him; but May does.
They go out training horses together. I don't mind that; but I wish she
wouldn't imitate his way of talking. He has been a very wild young man.'

'Now, mother dear, I wish you would leave off abusing Fred. I have
repeatedly told you that I don't like it.'

The acerbity of this remark was softened by May's manner, and, throwing
her arms on her mother's shoulders, she commenced to coax and cajole
her.