Miss G. prettily confused--"Emmeline, how can you!"

Mrs. G.--"Let your sister alone, Emmeline. I never saw such a tease!"

Mrs. Oreille--"What lovely corals you have, Miss Hawkins! Just look at

them, Bridget, dear. I've a great passion for corals--it's a pity

they're getting a little common. I have some elegant ones--not as

elegant as yours, though--but of course I don't wear them now."

Laura--"I suppose they are rather common, but still I have a great

affection for these, because they were given to me by a dear old friend

of our family named Murphy. He was a very charming man, but very

eccentric. We always supposed he was an Irishman, but after he got rich

he went abroad for a year or two, and when he came back you would have

been amused to see how interested he was in a potato. He asked what it

was! Now you know that when Providence shapes a mouth especially for the

accommodation of a potato you can detect that fact at a glance when that

mouth is in repose--foreign travel can never remove that sign. But he

was a very delightful gentleman, and his little foible did not hurt him

at all. We all have our shams--I suppose there is a sham somewhere about

every individual, if we could manage to ferret it out. I would so like

to go to France. I suppose our society here compares very favorably with

French society does it not, Mrs. Oreille?"

Mrs. O.--"Not by any means, Miss Hawkins! French society is much more

351

The Gilded Age