“O, his manners! won't his manners do then?” asked Biddy, plucking a black-currant leaf.

“My dear Biddy, they do very well here — ”

“O!

they do very well here?” interrupted Biddy, looking closely at the leaf in her hand.

“Hear me out, — but if I were to remove Joe into a higher sphere, as I shall hope to remove him when I fully come into my property, they would hardly do him justice.”

“And don't you think he knows that?” asked Biddy.

It was such a very provoking question (for it had never in the most distant manner occurred to me), that I said, snappishly, —