“And I really think he would not say no.  But as he’s not here, I shall act as his proxy.”

“Be quiet, and read that, if you can, for blushes;” and she spread out the paper before him, and then covered his eyes with her hands.  “No, you shan’t see it; it will make you vain.”

Elsley had looked eagerly at the honeyed columns; (as who would not have done?) but the last word smote him.  What was he thinking of? his own praise, or his wife’s love?

“Too true,” he cried, looking up at her.  “You dear creature!  Vain I am, God forgive me:  but before I look at a word of this I must have a talk with you.”

“I can’t stop; I must run back to the children.  No; now don’t look cross;” as his brow clouded, “I only said that to tease you.  I’ll stop with you ten whole minutes, if you won’t look so very solemn and important.  I hate tragedy faces.  Now what is it?”

As all this was spoken while both her hands were clasped round Elsley’s neck, and with looks and tones of the very sweetest as well as the very sauciest, no offence was given, and none taken:  but Elsley’s voice was sad as he asked,—­

“So you really do care for my poems?”

“You great silly creature?  Why else did I marry you at all?  As if I cared for anything in the world but your poems; as if I did not love everybody who praises them; and if any stupid reviewer dares to say a word against them I could kill him on the spot.  I care for nothing in the world but what people say of you.—­And yet I don’t care one pin; I know what your poems are, if nobody else does; and they belong to me, because you belong to me, and I must be the best judge, and care for nobody, no not I!”—­And she began singing, and then hung over him, tormenting him lovingly while he read.

It was a true American review, utterly extravagant in its laudations, whether from over-kindness, or from a certain love of exaggeration and magniloquence, which makes one suspect that a large proportion of the Transatlantic gentlemen of the press must be natives of the sister isle:  but it was all the more pleasant to the soul of Elsley.

“There,” said Lucia, as she clung croodling to him; “there is a pretty character of you, sir!  Make the most of it, for it is all those Yankees will ever send you.”

“Yes,” said Elsley, “if they would send one a little money, instead of making endless dollars by printing one’s books, and then a few more by praising one at a penny a line.”

“That’s talking like a man of business:  if instead of the review, now, a cheque for fifty pounds had come, how I would have rushed out and paid the bills!”

“And liked it a great deal better than the review?”

“You jealous creature!  No.  If I could always have you praised, I’d live in a cabin, and go about the world barefoot, like a wild Irish girl.”

“You would make a very charming one.”

“I used to, once, I can tell you, Valencia and I used to run about without shoes and stockings at Kilanbaggan, and you can’t think how pretty and white this little foot used to look on a nice soft carpet of green moss.”