"Who with?" Nina in her family was highly colloquial.

"With Doctor Livingstone."

"Are you joking?" Nina demanded.

"Joking? Of course not."

Nina sat down again on the bed, her eyes on her sister, curious and
not a little apprehensive.

"It's the first time it's ever happened, to my knowledge," she
declared. "I know he's avoided me like poison. I thought he hated
women. You know Clare Rossiter is--"

Elizabeth turned suddenly.

"Clare is ridiculous," she said. "She hasn't any reserve, or dignity,
or anything else. And I don't see what my going to the theater with
Dick Livingstone has to do with her anyhow."

Nina raised her carefully plucked eyebrows.

"Really!" she said. "You needn't jump down my throat, you know."
She considered, her eyes on her sister. "Don't go and throw yourself
away on Dick Livingstone, Sis. You're too good-looking, and he
hasn't a cent. A suburban practice, out all night, that tumble-down
old house and two old people hung around your necks, for Doctor David
is letting go pretty fast. It just won't do. Besides, there's a
story going the rounds about him, that--"