"He has certainly been a very handsome man," said the major.
"Has been!" exclaimed both the girls at once.
"He is still very well-looking," added the gentleman.
"Well-looking!" was again indignantly echoed by the ladies.
"You do not think the term strong enough? but when a man gets on the wrong side of forty it is, I think, as much as he can expect."
"I don't care a farthing what his age maybe," cried Mary; "do you, Miss Mowbray?... If he were a hundred and forty, with that countenance and that manner, I should still think him the handsomest and most perfect person I ever saw."
"Dear Mary!" replied Fanny affectionately, "how exactly we feel alike about him! I love you dearly for fighting his battles so warmly."
"There is surely no fighting in the case," said Major Dalrymple, laughing,--"at least not with me. But have a care, young ladies: such perfect conformity of taste on these subjects does not always, I believe, tend to the continuance of female friendship. What a sad thing it would be if those two little hands were some day to set pulling caps between their respective owners!"
"There is not the least danger of any such dismal catastrophe, I assure you. Is there Mary?"
"Good heavens, no!" replied little Mary in a voice of great indignation. "What a hateful idea!"
"One reason why it is so delightful to love and admire Mr. Cartwright," rejoined Fanny, "is, that one may do it and talk of it too, without any danger that _rational people_, Major Dalrymple, should make a jest of it, and talk the same sort of nonsense that every body is so fond of doing whenever a lady is heard to express admiration for a gentleman. But we may surely love and admire the clergyman of the parish; indeed I think it is a sort of duty for every one to do so."
"I assure you," replied the major, "that I both loved and admired Mr. Wallace exceedingly, and that I shall gladly pay the same homage to his successor as soon as I know him to deserve it. But
"I know your meaning, Major Dalrymple: you are always boasting of your age; but I don't know any one but yourself who thinks so very much of...."
"Just that.... But, good heavens! Fanny Mowbray, who is that to whom your mother is speaking on the lawn?"
"It is Mr. Cartwright!" cried Fanny with animation; "and now, Major Dalrymple, you will have an opportunity of judging for yourself."