French as she did English, with quiet grace. She found them
agreeable companions, while Emilia drifted among the elder midshipmen,
who were dazzling in gold lace if not in intellect. Kate fell to the
share of a vehement little surgeon, who danced her out of breath. Harry
officiated as interpreter between the governor of the State and a lively
young ensign, who yearned for the society of dignitaries. The governor
was quite aware that he himself could not speak French; the Frenchman
was quite unaware that he himself could not speak English; but with
Harry's aid they plunged boldly into conversation. Their talk happened
to fall on steam-engines, English, French, American; their comparative
cost, comparative power, comparative cost per horse power,--until Harry,
who was not very strong upon the steam-engine in his own tongue, and was
quite helpless on that point in any other, got a good deal astray among
the numerals, and implanted some rather wild statistics in the mind of
each. The young Frenchman was far more definite, when requested by the
governor to state in English the precise number of men engaged on board
the corvette. With the accuracy of his nation, he beamingly replied,
"Seeshundredtousand."

As is apt to be the case in Oldport, other European nationalities beside
the French were represented, though the most marked foreign accent was
of course to be found among Americans just returned. There were European
diplomatists who spoke English perfectly; there were travellers who
spoke no English at all; and as usual each guest sought to practise
himself in the tongue he knew least. There was the usual eagerness among
the fashionable vulgar to make acquaintance with anything that combined
broken English and a title; and two minutes after a Russian prince had
seated himself comfortably on a sofa beside Kate, he was vehemently
tapped on the shoulder by Mrs. Courtenay Brash with the endearing
summons: "Why! Prince, I didn't see as you was here. Do you set
comfortable where you be? Come over to this window, and tell all you
know!"

The prince might have felt that his summons was abrupt, but knew not
that it was ungrammatical, and so was led away in triumph. He had been
but a month or two in this country, and so spoke our language no more
correctly than Mrs. Brash, but only with more grace. There was no great
harm in Mrs. Brash; like most loquacious people, she was kind-hearted,
with a tendency to corpulence and good works