resolutely kept the greater part of her time free for Phil, she was
always considerate, and sweet in manner to the older lady, and she found
spare half-hours every day in which to sit and go out with her, so that
she should not feel neglected. Mrs. Watson grew quite fond of her "young
friend," though she stood a little in awe of her too, and was disposed to
be jealous if any one showed more attention to Clover than to herself.

An early outburst of this feeling came on the third day after their
arrival, when Mrs. Hope asked Phil and Clover to dinner, and did _not_ ask
Mrs. Watson. She had discussed the point with her husband, but the doctor
"jumped on" the idea forcibly, and protested that if that old thing was to
come too, he would "have a consultation in Pueblo, and be off in the five
thirty train, sure as fate."

"It's not that I care," Mrs. Watson assured Clover plaintively. "I've had
so much done for me all my life that of course--But I _do_ like to be
properly treated. It isn't as if I were just anybody. I don't suppose Mrs.
Hope knows much about Boston society anyway, but still--And I should
think a girl from South Framingham (didn't you say she was from South
Framingham?) would at least know who the Abraham Peabodys are, and they're
Henry's--But I don't imagine she was much of anybody before she was
married; and out here it's all hail fellow and well met, they say, though
in that case I don't see--Well, well, it's no matter, only it seems queer
to me; and I think you'd better drop a hint about it when you're there,
and just explain that my daughter lives next door to the
Lieutenant-Governor when she is in the country, and opposite the
Assistant-Bishop in town, and has one of the Harvard Overseers for a near
neighbor, and is distantly related to the Reveres! You'd think even a
South Framingham girl must know about the lantern and the Old South, and
how much they've always been respected at home."