It must be said that her wit was exercised to a large extent in self-defence, for her cousin amused himself with calling her "Columbia" and accusing her of a patriotism so heated that it scorched.

He drew a caricature of her in which she was represented as a very pretty young woman dressed, on the lines of the prevailing fashion, in the folds of the national banner.

Isabel's chief dread in life at this period of her development was that she should appear narrow-minded; what she feared next afterwards was that she should really be so.

But she nevertheless made no scruple of abounding in her cousin's sense and pretending to sigh for the charms of her native land.

She would be as American as it pleased him to regard her, and if he chose to laugh at her she would give him plenty of occupation.
She defended England against his mother, but when Ralph sang its praises on purpose, as she said, to work her up, she found herself able to differ from him on a variety of points.