"We have had hopes for Mr.Roderick, but I confess, if I have rightly understood them, they stopped short of greatness.

We should n't have taken the responsibility of claiming it for him.

What do you say, ladies?
We all feel about him here--his mother, Miss Garland, and myself--as if his merits were rather in the line of the"-- and Mr.Striker waved his hand with a series of fantastic flourishes in the air--"of the light ornamental!" Mr.Striker bore his recalcitrant pupil a grudge, but he was evidently trying both to be fair and to respect the susceptibilities of his companions.

But he was unversed in the mysterious processes of feminine emotion.

Ten minutes before, there had been a general harmony of sombre views; but on hearing Roderick's limitations thus distinctly formulated to a stranger, the two ladies mutely protested.