"I can't tell you, I am sure, ma'am. I saw nothing but a nice child enough in a calico frock, just such as one would see in any farm-house. She rushed into the room when she was first called to see us, from somewhere in distant regions, with an immense iron ladle a foot and a half long in her hand with which she had been performing unknown feats of housewifery; and they had left her head still encircled with a halo of kitchen-smoke. If as they say 'coming events cast their shadows before,' she was the shadow of supper."
"Oh Carleton, Carleton!" said Mrs. Evelyn, but in a tone of very gentle and laughing reproof,--"for shame! What a picture! and of your cousin!"
"Is she a pretty child, Guy?" said Mrs. Carleton, who did not relish her son's grave face.
"The highest--that degree of mould and finish which belongs only to the finest material."
"That is hardly the kind of beauty one would expect to see in such a place," said Mrs. Carleton. "From one side of her family to be sure she has a right to it."
"I have seen very few examples of it anywhere," said her son.
"Who were her parents?" said Mrs. Evelyn.
"Her mother was Mrs. Rossitur's sister,--her father--"
"Amy Carleton!" exclaimed Mrs. Evelyn,--"O I knew her! Was Amy Carleton her mother? O I didn't know whom you were talking of. She was one of my dearest friends. Her daughter may well be handsome--she was one of the most lovely persons I ever knew; in body and mind both. O I loved Amy Carleton very much. I must see this child."
"I don't know who her father was," Mrs. Carleton went on.
"O her father was Major Ringgan," said Mrs. Evelyn. "I never saw him, but I have heard him spoken of in very high terms. I always heard that Amy married very well."
"Major Ringgan!" said Mrs. Thorn;--"his name is very well known; he was very distinguished."
"He was a self-made man entirely," said Mrs. Evelyn, in a tone that conveyed a good deal more than the simple fact.
"Yes, he was a self made man," said Mrs. Thorn, "but I should never think of that where a man distinguishes himself so much; he was very distinguished."
"Yes, and for more than officer-like qualities," said Mrs. Evelyn. "I have heard his personal accomplishments as a gentleman highly praised."