for the Englishman's
instincts of defence. The General did not mean to give himself away; he
intended, indeed, precisely the contrary; but, after every round of
conversation Miss Boyson felt herself more and more richly provided with
materials for satire at the expense of England and the English tourist,
his invincible conceit, insularity, and condescension. She was a clever
though tiresome woman; and expressed herself best in letters. She
promised herself to write a "character" of General Hobson in her next
letter to an intimate friend, which should be a masterpiece. Then,
having led him successfully through the _role_ of the comic Englishman
abroad, she repaid him with information. She told him, not without some
secret amusement at the reprobation it excited, the tragic story of Mrs.
Verrier. She gave him a full history of her brother's honourable and
brilliant career; and here let it be said that the _precieuse_ in her
gave way to the sister, and that she talked with feeling. And finally
she asked him with a smile whether he admired Miss Floyd. The General,
who had in fact been observing Miss Floyd and his nephew with some
little uneasiness during the preceding half-hour, replied guardedly that
Miss Floyd was pretty and picturesque, and apparently a great talker.
Was she a native of Washington?

"You never heard of Miss Floyd?--of Daphne Floyd? No? Ah, well!"--and
she laughed--"I suppose I ought to take it as a compliment, of a kind.
There are so many rich people now in this queer country of ours that
even Daphne Floyds don't matter."

"Is Miss Floyd so tremendously rich?"

General Hobson turned a quickened countenance upon her, expressing no
more than the interest felt by the ordinary man in all societies--more
strongly, perhaps, at the present day than ever before--in the mere fact
of money. But Miss Boyson gave it at once a personal meaning, and set
herself to play on what she scornfully supposed to be the cupidity of
the Englishman. She produced, indeed, a full and particular account of
Daphne Floyd's parentage, possessions, and prospects, during which the
General's countenance represented him with great fidelity. A trace of
recalcitrance at the beginning--for it was his opinion that Miss Boyson,
like most American women, talked decidedly too much--gave way to close
attention, then to astonishment, and finally to a very animated
observation of Miss Floyd's slender person as she sat a yard or two from
him on t