'I shall not have patience to go on.

I get ill-humoured and indifferent, and then leave off.' 'Why ill-humoured ?' 'I scarcely know--more than that I acquire a general sense of my own family's want of merit through seeing how meritorious the people are around me.

I see them happy and thriving without any necessity for me at all; and then I regard these canvas grandfathers and grandmothers, and ask, "Why was a line so antiquated and out of date prolonged till now ?"' She chid him good-naturedly for such views.

'They will do you an injury,' she declared.

'Do spare yourself, Captain De Stancy!' De Stancy shook his head as he turned the painting before him a little further to the light.
'But, do you know,' said Paula, 'that notion of yours of being a family out of date is delightful to some people.