Harley's--and yet I bow my head meekly and go.
Why? Because I feel that, inconspicuous though I shall be,
nevertheless I am highly honored that Mr. Harley should select me
from among many for the uses of his gifted pen."
"You are prepared, then," retorted Marguerite, "to place yourself
unreservedly in Mr. Harley's hands? Shall you flirt with the captain
if he thinks your doing so will add to the humorous or dramatic
interest of his story? Will you permit your children to make
impertinent remarks to every one aboard ship; to pick up sailors'
slang and use it at the dining-table--in short, to make themselves
obnoxiously clever at all times, in order that Mr. Harley's critics
may say that his book fairly scintillates with wit, and gives
gratifying evidence that 'the rising young author' has made a deep
and careful analysis of the juvenile heart?"
"Mr. Harley is too much of a gentleman, Marguerite, to place me and
my children in a false or ridiculous light," returned Mrs. Corwin,
severely. "And even if he were not a gentleman, he is too true a
realist to make me do anything which in the nature of things I should
not do--which disposes of your entirely uncalled-for remark about the
captain and myself.
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