Or perhaps you are satirical and take
this roundabout way of telling me that I'm human like yourself.
I'm going down to supper, for I prefer Mr. Burleigh's toast to such
doubtful compliments."
"Miss Jennie, I protest, I never offered you a compliment in my
life," he said, accompanying her.
"In the name of the King's English, what are compliments, then?"
"Mere verbal sugar-plums, sweet, cloying, and often poisonous. My
expressions of honest opinion are, like Mr. Burleigh's toast you
are so fond of, made of the finest wheat of truth, leavened by my
irrepressible admiration, and done to the nicest shade of brown by
the warmth of my FRIENDLY regard."
"Oh, oh, OH! Your compliments are verbal balloons."
"Yes, that figure might apply to them also, for these opinions of
mine--not compliments, mark!--often carry me up above the clouds
and vapors of earth."
"Where you will find the atmosphere exceedingly thin and cold, I
assure you," said Miss Burton, with something like seriousness in
her tone. "I must remind you, Mr. Van Berg, that even Jack Bunsby
did not give his opinions till they were asked, and I will take
some toast, if you please, in their stead.
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