"Daniel _can_ be dreadful smooth an' fine when he sets out," she sometimes remarked to her daughter.

The lawyer's suave manner seemed to her downrightness to border upon affectation.
She, however, had a certain respect for it as the probable outcome of his superior education.
She marched ahead stiffly now, and left her brother to his flourishing seconding of her announcement.

Flora and the children received them beamingly when they entered the dining-room.

Flora was quite sure that she remembered Mrs.Maxwell, she was glad to see her, and she was glad to see Lois, and they would please sit right "here," and "here." She had taken off the children's pinafores and washed their faces, and they stood aloof in little starched and embroidered frocks, with their cheeks pinker than ever.
Flora seated one on each side of her, as she had said.

"Now, you must be good and not tease," she whispered admonishingly, and their blue eyes stared back at her with innocent gravity, and they folded their small hands demurely.
Nevertheless, it was through them that the whole dignity of the meal was lost.