lovely," and without further comment or any reference
to the compliments showered upon her, she
took her seat upon the top step and began to play
with Rex, who had already offered to make friends
with her, his invariable habit with well-dressed
people.

Jane meanwhile improved the occasion to ask the
doctor's mother about the hospital they were building
near Barnegat, and whether she and one or two of
the other ladies at Warehold would not be useful as
visitors, and, perhaps, in case of emergency, as
nurses.

While the talk was in progress Lucy sat smoothing
Rex's silky ears, listening to every word her hostess
spoke, watching her gestures and the expressions that
crossed her face, and settling in her mind for all
time, after the manner of young girls, what sort of
woman the doctor's mother might be; any opinions
she might have had two years before being now outlawed
by this advanced young woman in her present
mature judgment.

In that comprehensive glance, with the profound
wisdom of her seventeen summers to help her, she
had come to the conclusion that Mrs. Cavendish was
a high-strung, nervous, fussy little woman of fifty,
with an outward show of good-will and an inward
intention to rip everybody up the back who opposed