None of your drawling, by way of genteel voice, for me--I like my gossip crisp.

I will say this of that dear girl Primrose Mainwaring, that she did her gossip crisp." "You really are a very unaccountable person, Mrs.Mortlock," replied Miss Slowcum.

"You begin by abusing Primrose Mainwaring, and then you praise her in the most absurd manner.

I hope the refined reading of a cultivated lady is not to be compared to the immature utterances of a school-girl.

If that is so, Mrs.Mortlock, even for the sake of the tatting pattern, I cannot consent to waste my words on you." "Oh, my good creature," said Mrs.Mortlock, who by no means wished to be left to solitude and herself, "you read in a very pretty style of your own--obsolete it may be--h'm--I suppose we must expect that--mature it certainly is; yes, my dear, quite mature.