"Long, Miss Effingham! He then has the honour of being well known to you?" Eye answered steadily, though the colour mounted to her brow; but whether from the impetuous exclamation of her companion, or from any feeling connected with the subject of their conversation, the young man was at a loss to discover. "Long, as girls of twenty count time--some four or five years; but you may judge how well, when I tell you I am ignorant of his country even." "And may I venture to ask which do you, yourself, give him credit for being, an American or an Englishman?" Eve's bright eyes laughed, as she answered, "You have put the question with so much finesse, and with a politeness so well managed, that I should indeed be churlish to refuse an answer:--Nay, do not interrupt me, and spoil all the good you have done by unnecessary protestations of sincerity." "All I wish to say is, to ask an explanation of a finesse, of which I am quite as innocent as of any wish to draw down upon myself the visitations of your displeasure." "Do you, then, really conceive it a _credit_ to be an American?" "Nobody of less modesty than yourself, Miss Effingham, under all the circumstances, would dream of asking the question." "I thank you for the civility, which must be taken as it is offered, I presume, quite as a thing _en regle_; but to leave our fine opinions of each other, as well as our prejudices, out of the question--" "You will excuse me if I object to this, for I feel nay good sense implicated. _You_ can hardly attribute to me opinions so utterly unreasonable, so unworthy of a gentleman--so unfounded, in short! Am I not incurring all the risks and hardships of a long sea-voyage, expressly to visit your great country, and, I trust, to improve by its example and society?" "Since you appear to wish it, Mr. Sharp--" Eve glanced her playful eye up at him as she pronounced the name--"I will be as credulous as a believer in animal magnetism: and that, I fancy, is pushing credulity to the verge of reason. It is now settled between us, that you do conceive it an honour to be an American, born, educated, and by extraction." "All of which being the case with Miss Effingham." "All but the second; indeed, they write me fearful things concerning this European education of mine; some even go so far as to assure me I shall be quite unfitted to live in the society to which I properly belong!" "Europe will be rejoiced to receive you back again, in that case; and no European more so than myself." The beautiful colour deepened a little on the cheek of Eve, but she made no immediate reply.