Susanna had hardly gained her seat, before Mr Maguire seized an opportunity which he saw might soon be gone, and sprang to his legs. “Miss Todd,” said he, “may I be permitted to ask a blessing?”

“Oh, certainly,” said Miss Todd; “but I thought one only did that at dinner.”

Mr Maguire, however, was not the man to sit down without improving the occasion.

“And why not for tea also?” said he. “Are they not gifts alike?”

“Very much alike,” said Miss Todd, “and so is a cake at a pastry-cook’s. But we don’t say grace over our buns.”

“We do, in silence,” said Mr Maguire, still standing; “and therefore we ought to have it out loud here.”

“I don’t see the argument; but you’re very welcome.”

“Thank you,” said Mr Maguire; and then he said his grace. He said it with much poetic emphasis, and Miss Mackenzie, who liked any little additional excitement, thought that Miss Todd had been wrong.

“You’ve a deal of society here, no doubt,” said Mr Rubb to Miss Baker, while Miss Todd was dispensing her tea.

“I suppose it’s much the same as other places,” said Miss Baker. “Those who know many people can go out constantly if they like it.”

“And it’s so easy to get to know people,” said Mr Rubb. “That’s what makes me like these sort of places so much. There’s no stiffness and formality, and all that kind of thing. Now in London, you don’t know your next neighbour, though you and he have lived there for ten years.”

“Nor here either, unless chance brings you together.”

“Ah; but there is none of that horrid decorum here,” said Mr Rubb. “There’s nothing I hate like decorum. It prevents people knowing each other, and being jolly and happy together. Now, the French know more about society than any people, and I’m told they have none of it.”

“I’m sure I can’t say,” said Miss Baker.

“It’s given up to them that they’ve got rid of it altogether,” said Mr Rubb.

“Who have got rid of what?” asked Miss Todd, who saw that her friend was rather dismayed by the tenor of Mr Rubb’s conversation.

“The French have got rid of decorum,” said Mr Rubb.

“Altogether, I believe,” said Miss Todd.

“Of course they have. It’s given up to them that they have. They’re the people that know how to live!”

“You’d better go and live among them, if that’s your way of thinking,” said Miss Todd.

“I would at once, only for the business,” said Mr Rubb. “If there’s anything I hate, it’s decorum. How pleasant it was for me to be asked in to take tea here in this social way!”

“But I hope decorum would not have forbidden that,” said Miss Todd.

“I rather think it would though, in London.”

“Where you’re known, you mean?” asked Miss Todd.

“I don’t know that that makes any difference; but people don’t do that sort of thing. Do they, Miss Mackenzie? You’ve lived in London most of your life, and you ought to know.”