said; "for I was very _much_ ashamed that a son of mine should so far
forget himself as to fight a stranger whom he had never seen before.
But, in justice to you, I must add what you have omitted, which is that
you went and apologized to the boy for the affront."

"Did you?" Miss McPherson said, turning to Grey, who replied:

"Yes; and I must say that he received my rather bungling apology better
than I supposed he would.

"'All right,' he said, offering me his hand; 'I dare say I was a cad to
say what I did of your flag, but you needn't have hit me quite so hard.
Where did you learn boxing?'

"'I never learned it,' I told him. 'It was natural to all the Yankees,
who were born with clenched fists, ready to go at it.'

"He believed me, and said 'Reely, is that so?' and then he invited me to
play billiards with him, and we got to be good friends, and he asked all
sorts of questions about America, and said that our girls were the
prettiest in the world when they were young. All the English say that,
and Neil had heard it forty times, so it was not original with him. He
said, however, that pretty as they were, his cousin, Bessie, was far
prettier, that she was a most beautiful little creature, and as sweet as
she was beautiful."

"Bessie!" Miss McPherson exclaimed, with a peculiar ring in her voice,
and a manner of greater interest than she had evinced in Grey's recital
of his encounter with Neil, "Do you mean the daughter of Archibald
McPherson, my nephew, and did you see her? Did you see Archie?"