ing, they could never have signed their names in initials,
because that would have meant fathers and sons and brothers and sisters
indiscriminately, in fact all of them except the wives, who, having come
in from outside families, would be able, fortunately, to be plain Mary
and Jane. I am very fond of Garda, as indeed we all are; and I think she
has wonderful beauty, don't you?--though _rather_ Spanish perhaps. When
she was about twelve years old I was afraid that the tinge of her mother
in her was going to make her thin; but Nature fortunately prevented that
in time, for you know that once an elbow gets fixed in the habit of
being sharp, sharp it remains to the end of the chapter, though you may
have pounds and pounds both above and below it, which seems strange,
doesn't it? though of course it must serve some good purpose, as we
ought all to believe. And that reminds me to say that I hope dear
Katrina has gained flesh since she left school, for she used to be
rather too slender (though _very_ handsome otherwise), so that, in
profile view, you couldn't help thinking of a paper-cutter, and you
doubted whether she could even cast a shadow--like the man without a
shadow, you remember, who used to double his up and put it in his
pocket--only of course dear Katrina was never anything horrible like
that, and, after all, why we should _wish_ to cast shadows I am sure I
don't know; certainly there are enough of them, as it is, in this vale
of tears. If you like, I will take you down some day to call upon the
Thornes; they will be delighted to see us and we shall be like angels'
visits, few and far between, or fair as a star when only _one_; I _hope_
you like poetry--you modern young gentlemen have such a way of being
above it! But Mr. Carew was always very fond of Mrs. Hemans."

The monologues of Mr. Carew's relict could with the utmost ease be
regulated, their flowing currents turned aside into another channel
(from which they never came back to the first one), or stopped entirely,
by any one who wished to accomplish it, the lady's boundless good-nature
preventing her from even perceiving that she had been interrupted. But
Evert Winthrop had no wish to interrupt, he was enjoying the current's
vagaries; upon this occasion, therefore, it pursued its way unchecked to
the end--a thing which rarely happened, all Gracias having the habit of
damming it temporarily, turning it aside, or stopping it abruptly, in a
brisk manner which sh