Eva laughed, but Alice shrugged her shoulders, and said tranquilly,
"I don't mind. She wouldn't expect much wisdom from school-girls."

This was cold comfort to Carrie, who was painfully conscious of
having been a particularly silly school-girl just then. So she gave
a groan and lay down again, wishing she had not expressed her
views quite so freely, and had kept Wanda for the privacy of her own
room.

The three girls were the guests of a delightful old lady, who had
know their mothers and was fond of renewing her acquaintance with
them through their daughters. She loved young people, and each
summer invited parties of them to enjoy the delights of her
beautiful country house, where she lived alone now, being the
childless widow of a somewhat celebrated man. She made it very
pleasant for her guests, leaving them free to employ a part of the
day as they liked, providing the best of company at dinner, gay
revels in the evening, and a large house full of curious and
interesting things to examine at their leisure.

The rain had spoiled a pleasant plan, and business letters had made
it necessary for Mrs. Warburton to leave the three to their own
devices after lunch. They had read quietly for several hours, and
their hostess was just finishing her last letter when fragments of
the conversation reached her ear. She listened with amusement,
unconscious that they had forgotten her presence, finding the
different views very characteristic, and easily explained by the
difference of the homes out of which the three friends came.