I think," he added, also with a smile, "that the ladies find the topic tiresome." "Perhaps we may have the pleasure of continuing it when they are no longer present." "Oh, as you please," was the indifferent answer.

"Carruthers, may I trouble you to pass the salt?
Lady O'Callaghan was complaining the other night of the abuse of salt in Portuguese cookery.

It is an abuse I have never yet detected." "I can't conceive Lady O'Callaghan complaining of too much salt in anything, begad," quoth O'Moy, with a laugh.

"If you had heard the story she told me about--" "Terence, my dear!" his wife checked him, her fine brows raised, her stare frigid.
"Faith, we go from bad to worse," said Carruthers.

"Will you try to improve the tone of the conversation, Miss Armytage?
It stands in urgent need of it." With a general laugh, breaking the ice of the restraint that was in danger of settling about the table, a semblance of ease was restored, and this was maintained until the end of the repast.