"So that little Miss Ringgan's right to be a beauty may be considered clearly made out," said Mr. Thorn.
"It is one of those singular cases," said Mr. Carleton, "where purity of blood proves itself, and one has no need to go back to past generations to make any inquiry concerning it."
"Hear him!" cried Rossitur;--"and for the life of me I could see nothing of all this wonder. Her face is not at all striking."
"The wonder is not so much in what it _is_ as in what it indicates," said Mr. Carleton.
"What does it indicate?" said his mother.
"Suppose you were to ask me to count the shades of colour in a rainbow," answered he.
"Well, I hope she will go with us and we shall have a chance of seeing her," said Mrs. Carleton.
"If she were only a few years older it is my belief you would see enough of her, ma'am," said young Rossitur.
The haughty coldness of Mr. Carleton's look at this speech could not be surpassed.
"But she has beauty of feature too, has she not?" Mrs. Carleton asked again of her son.
"Yes, in very high degree. The contour of the eye and brow I never saw finer."
"It is a little odd," said Mrs. Evelyn with the slightest touch of a piqued air, (she had some daughters at home)--"that is a kind of beauty one is apt to associate with high breeding, and certainly you very rarely see it anywhere else; and Major Ringgan, however distinguished and estimable, as I have no doubt he was,--And this child must have been brought up with no advantages, here in the country."
"My dear madam," said Mr. Carleton smiling a little, "this high breeding is a very fine thing, but it can neither be given nor bequeathed; and we cannot entail it."
"If it could be taught it is to be hoped it would be oftener learned," said the young man dryly.
"But what do we mean, then, when we talk of the high breeding of certain classes--and families? and why are we not disappointed when we look to find it in connection with certain names and positions in society?"
"You don't mean to say, I suppose, Mr. Carleton," said Thorn bridling a little, "that it is a thing independent of circumstances, and that there is no value in blood?"
"Very nearly--answering the question as you understand it."
"Is there no high breeding then in the world?" asked good-natured Mrs. Thorn, who could be touched on this point of family.