"May you never play a less becoming one!" cried Longueville. "I hope
that your mother, at least, will accept a memento of the occasion." And
he turned again with his sketch to her companion, who had been listening
to the girl's conversation with this enterprising stranger, and looking
from one to the other with an air of earnest confusion. "Won't you do me
the honor of keeping my sketch?" he said. "I think it really looks like
your daughter."

"Oh, thank you, thank you; I hardly dare," murmured the lady, with a
deprecating gesture.

"It will serve as a kind of amends for the liberty I have taken,"
Longueville added; and he began to remove the drawing from its paper
block.

"It makes it worse for you to give it to us," said the young girl.

"Oh, my dear, I am sure it 's lovely!" exclaimed her mother. "It 's
wonderfully like you."

"I think that also makes it worse!"

Longueville was at last nettled. The young lady's perversity was perhaps
not exactly malignant; but it was certainly ungracious. She seemed to
desire to present herself as a beautiful tormentress.

"How does it make it worse?" he asked, with a frown.

He believed she was clever, and she was certainly ready. Now, however,