"My brother George is in love with a lady," said Grace, who never saw the way to miss the very worst of jokes, "who will want a lot of practice before she can sit down. What on earth will he do with her when he gives a dinner-party?" This was a thoroughly vulgar error, as I have shown most distinctly above. "Poor George, what a fool he is making of himself! But no brother of yours could ever be a fool. Forgive me: for the moment I was forgetting the great mental powers of your family, Miss Cranleigh." "You need not call me that, unless you wish it. I mean at least--you need not call me that, so often. After all that you have done for us, it sounds so formal." "Bless your kind heart! what have I ever done for you? But Grace is what I should love to call you; Grace, Grace, and nothing else. Unless I might add another word, beginning with a d----" "All words beginning with a d are bad. But there can't be much harm in Grace, that I know of. Only you shouldn't say it very often." "Oh dear, no! Not more than every time I breathe. Very often is superlative. And so are you. And therefore I am to say it, every time I say you. So I will; am I not a worshipper of the Graces?" "You must not say it, every time you say me. And I made a dreadful slip, as you must perceive. I wasn't thinking for the moment. And surely you would never dream of taking an advantage----" "Now come all they that wish me evil; all they that against me have imagined a vain thing----" "What else are you doing yourself, if you please? If you would only allow me one moment to explain----" "In the name of the Lord will I destroy them." "Oh, Mr. Jackson Stoneman!" She looked at him in doubt of his ferocity, or sanity; and he, in high spirits, clapped his heels on the floor and sprang up, and began to draw nearer. "No tub will do for me. I must have a throne. I am the King of the City, and of Surrey. Grace Cranleigh has proclaimed it." "Truly you are in a great haste to crown yourself. She has never done anything of the kind. But if to make an ell out of half an inch is kingly----" "If I did that, I will soon put it right. Let me make half an inch out of the ell now." "No, no! I insist upon your staying where you are. There is a little door going out, between these two pans; and unless you are quite sensible, you will see no more of me." "How can I be quite sensible, when I see any? Oh, Grace, Grace, you cannot conceive what a relief to me it is, to be able to utter your name, with a joy, with a pride, with an ecstasy inconceivable!" "Mr. Stoneman, you are upon the Stock Exchange, and a certified dealer--is not that the proper term? Very well then; you don't deal with any property, until you get it." "Don't we, though? Oh, Grace, if we did not, where in the world would our business be? But I don't want to talk shop now at all. I want to talk something far outside of that."