strong and urgent that I was obliged to reply by a protest against awarding
the palm of elegance between parent and child, and declaring I liked her
very much, which I attested by a kiss.

'I know right well which of us you do think's the nicest, and no mistake,
only you're afraid of him; and he had no business boshing me last night
before you. I knew he was at it, though I couldn't twig him altogether; but
wasn't he a sneak, now, wasn't he?'

This was a still more awkward question; so I kissed her again, and said she
must never ask me to say of my uncle in his absence anything I could not
say to his face.

At which speech she stared at me for a while, and then treated me to one of
her hearty laughs, after which she seemed happier, and gradually grew into
better humour with her father.

'Sometimes, when the curate calls, he has me up--for he's as religious as
six, he is--and they read Bible and prays, ho--don't they? You'll have
that, lass, like me, to go through; and maybe I don't hate it; oh, no!'

We breakfasted in a small room, almost a closet, off the great parlour,
which was evidently quite disused. Nothing could be homelier than our
equipage, or more shabby than the furniture of the little apartment. Still,
somehow, I liked it. It was a total change; but one likes 'roughing it' a
little at first.