I will admit that the school is not as retiring and diffident as formerly; for we are all ready enough to say that no times are egual to our own times; but I shall strenuously protest against your interpretation of the nature and artlessness of an American girl.

There was a piquancy in her accent that made the hearer wish to hear further, and a certain artlessness in her manner not met with recently by him.

In it were mingled craft and artlessness with a touch of dignity to make it unassailable.