holiday so much as the day after you had one, she had made a movement of
the highest social importance. These were the ideas which Verrian and
the young man of the in-doors snow-storm urged upon her; his name was
Bushwick, and he and Verrian found that they were very good-fellows after
they had rather supposed the contrary.

Mrs. Westangle received their ideas with the twittering reticence that
deceived so many people when they supposed she knew what they were
talking about.




XII.

At breakfast, where the guests were reasonably punctual, they were all
able to observe, in the rapid succession in which they descended from
their rooms, that it had stopped snowing and the sun was shining
brilliantly.

"There isn't enough for sleighing," Mrs. Westangle proclaimed from the
head of the table in her high twitter, "and there isn't any coasting here
in this flat country for miles."

"Then what are we going to do with it?" one of the young ladies
humorously pouted.

"That's what I was going to suggest," Mrs. Westangle replied. She
pronounced it 'sujjest', but no one felt that it mattered. "And, of
course," she continued, "you needn't any of you do it if you don't like."