'And both that and South Beach are so stale,' said the youth.

'As if the dear sea could ever be stale,' cried the young girl.

'I thought Monks Horton was forbidden ground,' said Miss Mary.

'So it was with the last regime', said the vicar; 'but now the new
people are come I expect great things from them. I hear they are
very friendly.'

'I expect nothing from them,' said Nuttie so sententiously that all
her hearers laughed and asked 'her exquisite reason,' as Mr. Dutton
put it.

'Lady Kirkaldy and a whole lot of them came into the School of Art.'

'And didn't appreciate "Head of Antinous by Miss Ursula Egremont,"'
was the cry that interrupted her, but she went on with dignity
unruffled--'Anything so foolish and inane as their whole talk and all
their observations I never heard. "I don't like this style," one of
them said. "Such ugly useless things! I never see anything pretty
and neatly finished such as we used to do."' The girl gave it in a
tone of mimicry of the nonchalant voice, adding, with fresh
imitation, "'And another did not approve of drawing from the life--
models might be such strange people."'

'My ears were not equally open to their profanities,' said Miss Mary.
'I confess that I was struck by the good breeding and courtesy of the
leader of the party, who, I think, was Lady Kirkaldy herself.'