"She has the Boston temperament," he said, using a phrase with which he had become familiar and which evoked a train of associations.

But then he immediately added that if Mrs.Vivian was a daughter of the Puritans, the Puritan strain in her disposition had been mingled with another element.

"It is the Boston temperament sophisticated," he said; "perverted a little--perhaps even corrupted.
It is the local east-wind with an infusion from climates less tonic." It seemed to him that Mrs.Vivian was a Puritan grown worldly--a Bostonian relaxed; and this impression, oddly enough, contributed to his wish to know more of her.

He felt like going up to her very politely and saying, "Dear lady and most honored compatriot, what in the world have I done to displease you?
You don't approve of me, and I am dying to know the reason why.

I should be so happy to exert myself to be agreeable to you.
It 's no use; you give me the cold shoulder.