We did join the ladies. We found them strolling over the lawn in the cool of a September evening, and presently we all went in to coffee. I noticed that the Colonel was very polite and attentive, not only to my wife, but to young Mrs Harris, who was exceedingly stupid and plain of feature. As for Mrs and Miss Jarman, they were entertained by the Doctor with an amusing dissertation on the difference between America and England, and especially between London and New York. If Mrs Jarman had hitherto cherished a belief in the pre-eminence of London, as she apparently had, she must have received a considerable shock as the Doctor informed her that Belgravia was but a poor place to Fourth and Fifth Avenue, and that we were benighted creatures in all matters of elegance and taste. “Not a mahogany door, I guess, have I seen in this smoky beggarly town of yours,” said Dr Bett, with both thumbs in the pockets of his black satin vest; “and as for silver knockers and bell-pulls, I might as well look for liberty in your institutions, or for sincerity in your press. The helps are enough to disgust all free-born men; to see them in plush and powder, with gold-sticks and nosegays, standing behind the gilt vehicles of an effete aristocracy, is alone a spectacle that beats earthquakes; and your Life Guards would sing small, I guess, by the side of the Brooklyn Volunteers.” The Colonel, however, could be complimentary and gentle, if his brother republican could not; and so well did he play his cards, that when the company drove off, and the last grinding of their carriage-wheels upon the gravel had died away, my wife and daughters turned to me with beaming faces, and began to sing the praises of their departed guest. “A most superior, well-informed, gentlemanly man, is Colonel Sling,” said the partner of my joys, emphatically. “A delightful man!” lisped Georgina, my eldest. “Quite an Admirable Crichton,” said Selina, my second, who is a bit of a blue. “Delightful! he has _so_ much conversation, and makes one laugh _so_!” cried artless Lucy, the third and youngest of my daughters.