The things we do!

When the meal was over, the mother, who had matter of importance to
impart to him, besought him to go to the drawing-room, and there poured
out such a eulogy upon her children's qualities as fond mothers know how
to utter. They knew this and they knew that. They were instructed by the
most eminent professors; "that wretched Frenchwoman, whom you may
remember here, Mademoiselle Lenoir," Maria remarked parenthetically,
"turned out, oh, frightfully! She taught the girls the worst accent, it
appears. Her father was not a colonel; he was--oh! never mind! It is a
mercy I got rid of that fiendish woman, and before my precious ones knew
what she was!" And then followed details of the perfections of the two
girls, with occasional side-shots at Lady Anne's family, just as in the
old time. "Why don't you bring your boy, whom I have always loved as a
son, and who avoids me? Why does not Clive know his cousins? They are
very different from others of his kinswomen, who think best of the
heartless world.


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