Then Lady Brandon, driving with great energy, and presenting a remarkable contrast to the disdainful repose of Gertrude." "Gertrude! I like your cheek." "You mean that you dislike my presumption." "No, I think cheek a more expressive word than presumption; and I mean that I like it--that it amuses me." "Really! What are you reading ?" "Rubbish, you said just now.

A novel." "That is, a lying story of two people who never existed, and who would have acted very differently if they had existed." "Just so." "Could you not imagine something just as amusing for yourself ?" "Perhaps so; but it would be too much trouble.

Besides, cooking takes away one's appetite for eating.

I should not relish stories of my own confection." "Which volume are you at ?" "The third." "Then the hero and heroine are on the point of being united ?" "I really don't know.

This is one of your clever novels.