"
"O Cecil, how lovely! Oh, the maiden-hair. You've been making
acquaintance with Essie and Lina?"
"I did not know you were out, Babie," said Essie. "Was my aunt with
you?"
"Yes. We just ran over to see Mrs. Lucas, and as we were coming
home, a poor woman besought us to buy two toasting-forks and a mouse-
trap, by way of ornament to brandish in the streets. She looked so
frightfully wretched, that mother let her follow, and is having it
out with her at the door. So you are from Fordham, Cecil; I see and
I smell. How are they?"
"Duke is rather brisk. I actually got him out shooting yesterday,
but he didn't half like it, and was thankful when I let him go home
again. See, Sydney said I was to tell you that passion-flower came
from the plant she brought from Algiers."
"The beauty! It must go into Mrs. Evelyn's Venice glass," said
Babie, bustling about to collect her vases.
Lina, with a cry of delight, clutched at a spray of butterfly-like
mauve and white orchids, in spite of her sister's gentle "No, no,
Lina, you must not touch."
Babie offered some China asters in its stead, Cecil muttered "Let her
have it;" but Esther was firm in making her relinquish it, and when
she began to cry, led her away with pretty tender gestures of mingled
comfort and reproof.
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