"You must not make fun of us to visitors, Mr. Vancouver," answered Mrs.
Wyndham, still holding Sybil's hand.

"It is Mr. Vancouver's ruling passion, though he never acknowledges it,"
said Miss Brandon, calmly. "I remember it of old."

"I am flattered at being remembered," said Mr. Vancouver, whose delicate
features betrayed neither pleasure nor interest, however. "But," he
continued, "I am not particularly flattered at being called a scoffer at
my own people--"

"I did not say that," interrupted Miss Brandon.

"Well, you said my ruling passion was making fun of Boston to visitors; at
least, you and Mrs. Wyndham said it between you. I really never do that,
unless I give the other side of the question as well."

"What other side?" asked Mrs. Sam, who wanted to make conversation.

"Boston," said Vancouver with some solemnity. "It is not more often
ridiculous than other great institutions."

"You simply take one's breath away, Mr. Vancouver," said Mrs. Wyndham,
with a good deal of emphasis. "The idea of calling Boston 'an
institution!'"

"Why, certainly. The United States are only an institution after all. You
could not soberly call us a nation. Even you could not reasonably be moved
to fine patriotic phrases about your native country, if your ancestors had
signed twenty Declarations of Independence. We live in a great