"Have I said anything so ridiculous ?" "Go on, go on," Cecilia replied.

"You are too delicious! Show Mr.Mallet how Mr.Striker read the Declaration of Independence." Hudson, like most men with a turn for the plastic arts, was an excellent mimic, and he represented with a great deal of humor the accent and attitude of a pompous country lawyer sustaining the burden of this customary episode of our national festival.

The sonorous twang, the see-saw gestures, the odd pronunciation, were vividly depicted.

But Cecilia's manner, and the young man's quick response, ruffled a little poor Rowland's paternal conscience.

He wondered whether his cousin was not sacrificing the faculty of reverence in her clever protege to her need for amusement.