"
"Ah! I forgot; forgive me."
"Little hypocrite; don't they you too, pray? Why, you are as dull as
ditchwater the other evenings."
"Me, dear, dull with you?"
"Yes, Miss Crocodile, dull with a pattern uncle and his friend--and
your admirer." He watched her to see how she would take this last
word. Catch her taking it at all. "I am never dull with you, dear
uncle," said she; "but a third person, however estimable, is a certain
restraint, and when that person is not very lively--" Here the
explanation came quietly to an untimely end, like those old tunes that
finish in the middle or thereabouts.
"But that is the very thing; what do I ask them for to-night but to
thaw Talboys?"
"To thaw Talboys? he! he!"
Lucy seemed so tickled by this expression that the old gentleman was
sorry he had used it.
"I mean, they will make him laugh." Then, to turn it off, he said
hastily, "And don't forget the fiddle, Lucy."
"Oh, yes, dear, please let me forget that, and then perhaps they may
forget to bring it."
"Why, you pressed him to bring it; I heard you."
"Did I?" said Lucy, ruefully.
"I am sure I thought you were mad after a fiddle, you seconded Eve so
warmly; so that. was only your extravagant politeness after all. I am
glad you are caught. I like a fiddle, so there is no harm done."
Yes, reader, you have hit it. Eve, who openly quizzed her brother, but
secretly adored him, and loved to display all his accomplishments, had
egged on Mr.
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