He meant it to stir up his rather indolent-minded Grace--he did not
mean the countess to hear it; but some people's eyes and ears are
wonderfully quick at gathering what is to their own credit, and Kate,
who had not heard a bit of commendation for a long time, was greatly
elated.

Luckily for appearances, she remembered how Miss Edgeworth's Frank
made himself ridiculous by showing off to Mrs. J-- , and how she
herself had once been overwhelmed by the laughter of the Wardour
family for having rehearsed to poor Mrs. Brown all the characters of
the gods of the Northmen--Odin, Thor, and all--when she had just
learnt them. So she was more careful than before not to pour out all
the little that she knew; and she was glad she had not committed
herself, for she had very nearly volunteered the information that
Pompeii was overwhelmed by Mount Etna, before she heard some one say
Vesuvius, and perceived her mistake, feeling as if she had been
rewarded for her modesty like a good child in a book.

She applauded herself much more for keeping back her knowledge till
it was wanted, than for having it; but this self-satisfaction looked
out in another loop-hole. She avoided pedantry, but she was too much
elated not to let her spirits get the better of her; and when Lady de
la Poer and the elder girls came up, they found her in a suppressed
state of capering, more like a puppy on its hind logs, than like a
countess or any other well-bred child.

The party met under the screen of kings and queens, and there had
some dinner, at one of the marble tables that just held them
pleasantly. The cold chicken and tongue were wonderfully good on