is not of the slightest consequence. Poor woman! She has only just discovered the macaw. She says she never would have taken Marble Hall, if she had been aware of that nuisance, and she thinks Randall ought to have told her, and wants him to get rid of it; but he not only says, he does not know where it is, but that he thought it sounded very cheerful. Ah well! it's all of a piece with the rest of life, as I tell her. Incivility your only help, and a macaw's scream your only harmony. Life! life!"
"Law, my dear, don't talk in that way. I did not mean to be uncivil."
"So I told her ma'am, when she said how much your note had surprised and distressed her. I assured her you did not mean any incivility, and that indeed I felt certain that from the melancholy tie which binds you and me, that you could not have intended to annoy any friend of mine, and Miss Monteneros agreed with me. I had meant to have dined at Marble Hall, it will be a convenience to me in that sort of way, but it is in such
