"The Pelhams are coming next month."

"Who are the Pelhams?"

Miss Agnes Brendon gave a little upward lift to her small pert nose as
she exclaimed:

"Tilly Morris, you don't mean to say that you don't know who the Pelhams
are?"

Tilly, thus addressed, lifted up _her_ nose as she replied,--

"I do mean to say just that."

"Why, where have you lived?" was the next wondering question.

"In the wilds of New York City," answered Tilly, sarcastically.

"Where the sacred stiffies of Boston are unknown," cried Dora Robson,
with a laugh.

"But the Pelhams,--I thought that everybody knew of the Pelhams at
least," Agnes remarked, with a glance at Tilly that plainly expressed a
doubt of her denial. Tilly caught the glance, and, still further
irritated, cried impulsively,--

"Well, I never heard of them! Why should I? What have they done, pray
tell, that everybody should know of them?"