In those days, endearments, now made ineffective by use and misuse, had some meaning. Young people addressed their elders as ‘ma’am’ and ‘sir,’ and equals, who were also intimates, employed much formality of speech. While this custom was an unquestionable bar to confidence between parents and children, it emphasized any approach made by such as had decided to depart from it; also, it bred strange mixtures. To address those of your acquaintance who had titles as ‘your lordship’ or ‘your ladyship’ was then no solecism. Women, in speaking to their husbands or their men friends, would either use their full formal names or dispense with prefix altogether; and Lady Eliza, whose years of friendship with Fullarton more than justified his Christian name on her tongue, called him ‘Fullarton,’ ‘Robert,’ or ‘Mr. Fullarton,’ with the same ease, while to him she was equally ‘your ladyship’ or ‘Eliza.’ Miss Hersey Robertson spoke to ‘Gilbert’ in the same breath in which she addressed ‘Mr. Speid.’ Though Cecilia called her adopted aunt ‘ma’am,’ there existed between them an intimacy due, not only to love, but to the quality of their respective natures. The expectancy of youth which had died so hard in Lady Eliza had been more nearly realized in the loyal and tender devotion of her adopted niece than in any other circumstance in life. There was so fine a sympathy in Cecilia, so great a faculty for seizing the innermost soul of things, that the pathos of her aunt’s character, its nobility, its foibles, its prejudices, its very absurdities, were seen by her through the clear light of an understanding love. ‘I suppose you have guessed why Mr. Crauford Fordyce has been here so much?’ said Lady Eliza in a few minutes. ‘You know his feelings, I am sure.’ ‘He has said nothing to me.’ ‘But he has spoken to me. We shall have to decide it, Cecilia. You know it would be a very proper marriage for you, if--if---- He annoyed me very much the other day, but there is no use in talking about it. Marry him if you like, my dear--God knows, I ought not to prevent you. I can’t bear his family, Cecilia, though he is Fullarton’s nephew--insolent fellow! I have no doubt he is a very worthy young man. You ought to consider it.’ ‘What did you say to him, ma’am?’ ‘Oh--well, I cannot exactly tell you, my dear. I would not bias you for the world.’ ‘But you promised him nothing, aunt? You do not mean that you wish me to accept him?’ exclaimed Cecilia, growing pale again. ‘You are to do what you please. I have no doubt he will have the face to come again. I wish you were settled.’ ‘If he were the only man in the world, I would not marry him,’ said the girl firmly. ‘Thank Heaven, Cecilia! What enormous front teeth he has--they are like family tombstones. Take the raspberries to the cook, my dear; I am so happy.’