or; he was still giving it when the sketching party returned.

Lucian was in gayest spirits. He seized the coffee-pot. "No one should
be trusted to pour out coffee," he said, "but a genuine lover of the
beverage. See the people pour out who are not real coffee-drinkers
themselves; they pour stingily, reluctantly; they give you cold coffee,
or coffee half milk, or cups half full; they cannot understand how you
can wish for more. Coffee doesn't agree with them very well; they find
it, therefore, difficult to believe--in fact they never do believe--that
it should really agree with you. It may have been all talked over in the
family circle, and a fair generosity on the part of the non-loving
pourer guaranteed; but I tell you that in spite of guarantees, she
_will_ scrimp."

Mr. Moore, a delicate pink flush on his cheeks, now came up with his
grilled slices, which proved to be excellent.

"My cousin, you are a wonderful person," said Lucian.

Mr. Moore made a little disclaiming murmur in his throat; "Er-um,
er-um," he said, waving his hand in a deprecatory way.

"--But you ought to have been a Frenchman," pursued Lucian.

Mr. Moore opened his eyes.

"Because then your goodness would have been so resplendent, my cousin.
As it is, it shines on an American background, and eight-tenths of
native-born Americans are good men."

"Yes, we have, I think, a high standard of morality," said Mr. Moore,
with approbation.

"And also a high standard of splendor," continued Lucian; "we are, I am
sure, the most splendid nation in the world. Some years ago, my cousin,
a clergyman at the West was addressing his congregation on a bright
Sunday morning; he was in the habit of speaking without notes, and of
preaching what are called practical sermons. Wishing to give an example
of appropriate Christian simplicity, he began a sentence as follows:
'For instance, my friends, none of you would think of coming to the
house of the Lord in'--here he saw a glitter from diamond ear-rings in
several directions--'of coming to the house of the Lord, I say,
in'--here he caught the gleam from a number of breastpins--'in'--here
two or three hands, from which the gloves had been removed, stirring by
chance, sent back to him rays from wrists as well as fingers--'in
_tiaras_ of diamonds, my friends,' he concluded at last, desperately.
His congregation had on there, before his eyes, every other known
arrangement of the stone."

Mr. Moore smiled slightly