Page:Coo-ee - tales of Australian life by Australian ladies.djvu/130

126 They wouldn't look at French modern paintings, and on principle the entire family only lives to protest against modern morals. They always use the best brand of words and thoughts, I even believe their dreams have an ethical basis and a theological bias, and they are such a devoted family; they have little family ways, and little family quotations, and select high-class little jokes of a literary turn. Ah, they are charming and so naîve! But you see they cannot naturally judge by comparison, and they are just a little--ah, they are my dear friends! I am a wretch, and should not say it--ah, but they are'--

'Intolerable, I should say,' I remarked frankly.

Where did this young person get her little French turns and twists and modes of speech from, I should like to know? Her shrugs were got on French soil, I felt quite convinced.

'Ah, Mrs. Vallings, I would never have said that,' she cried, the artlessness coming to the surface at a gush.

'She is afraid of herself,' I thought shrewdly. 'Highly as these people entertain her, she daren't let it all out.'

'Of course you wouldn't,' I answered placidly. 'You are of the neighbourhood; I am a stranger, and quite free to speak my mind. But how, then, do these provincial people get on here--with those delicious Carew girls, for instance?'

'Ah, you see, they are gentle-people, and up here the society is limited.'