impertinent intrusion before three o'clock."

"Yes, I'll do that! I will! It will be better than nothing."

"Oh, a long sight better. And nothing can alter the procession of
the seasons. Summer will arrive again in due course, and if your
friends are not far more interested in something else by that time it
is hardly likely that even Mrs. Abbott will sacrifice the comforts of
Alta to spy on any one."

"Not she! She has asthma in San Francisco in summer." Madeleine
spoke gaily, but she avoided his eyes. Whether he was maintaining a
pose or not she could only guess, but she had one of her own to keep
up.

"You must have thought me very silly to cry--but--these people have
all been quite angelic to me before, and Mrs. Abbott descended upon
me like the Day of Judgment."

"I should think she did, the old she-devil, and if you hadn't cried
you wouldn't have been a true woman! But we have a good half hour
left. I'd like to read you--"

At this moment Dr. Talbot's loud voice was heard in the hall.

"All right. See you later. Sorry--"