He longed very much to knock down one of the 'Jeames's,' who would stand gazing at him, and did so far betray his indignation, as to ask him, when he came behind his chair, whether he saw anything remarkable in his appearance, which so amused Madame Duvet, that she exclaimed '_Charmant! brava!_ you make me _crever de rire_.' Owen was astonished at everything, but at nothing so much as at his sister.

Netta had always aped the fine lady, and made the most of her few accomplishments; but now it was all like a fairy-tale, and the heroine was Netta, transformed by some fairy into a princess.

By turns coquettish, affected, simple, languishing, accordingly as she feared she was too like her natural self--the Netta of the Farm was no more, and her representative was, to Owen at least, an anomaly.

How she could have acquired such an amount of small talk, and such a mincing speech in nine months, was an enigma to him.

London, Paris, the opera, the fashions, even the picture galleries, were alternately in her mouth; and she poured out tea and coffee, and laughed a silly laugh, much to her own satisfaction, and Owen's disgust, whilst all the men were looking at her; for assuredly she was very pretty.
'Owen,' she said, during a sudden pause in rather a noisy conversation, 'I hear Rowland is quite a fashionable preacher.