The manner, still more than the matter of this speech, was
beyond the withstanding of any good-natured muscles, though
the gentleman's smile was a grave one, and quickly lost in
gravity. Mrs. Evelyn laughed and reproved in a breath, but the
laugh was admiring, and the reproof was stimulative. The
bright eye of Constance danced in return with the mischievous
delight of a horse that has slipped his bridle and knows you
can't catch him.

"And this has been her life ever since Mr. Rossitur lost his
property?"

"Entirely, — sacrificed!" said Mrs. Evelyn, with a
compassionately resigned air; — education, advantages, and
everything given up, and set down here, where she has seen
nobody from year's end to year's end but the country people
about — very good people — but not the kind of people she
ought to have been brought up among."

"Oh, Mamma!" said the eldest Miss Evelyn, in a deprecatory
tone, "you shouldn't talk so — it isn't right — I am sure she
is very nice — nicer now than anybody else I know, and clever
too."

"Nice!" said Edith. "I wish I had such a sister."

"She is a good girl— a very good girl," said Mrs. Evelyn, in a
tone which would have deterred any one from wishing to make
her acquaintance.