But one person has any influence over him now." She paused again, and tried to trip up the governess once more.

"Miss Minerva, let me appeal to You.

I regard you as a member of our family; I have the sincerest admiration of your tact and good sense.
Am I exceeding the limits of delicacy, if I say plainly to my niece, Persuade Ovid to go ?" If Carmina had possessed an elder sister, with a plain personal appearance and an easy conscience, not even that sister could have matched the perfect composure with which Miss Minerva replied.
"I don't possess your happy faculty of expressing yourself, Mrs.
Gallilee.

But, if I had been in your place, I should have said to the best of my poor ability exactly what you have said now." She bent her head with a graceful gesture of respect, and looked at Carmina with a gentle sisterly interest while she stirred her tea.
At the very opening of the skirmish, Mrs.Gallilee was defeated.

She had failed to provoke the slightest sign of jealousy, or even of ill-temper.