May flushed. Lately she had been the recipient of some gifts.
“Of course she is here to train the younger minds in the paths of knowledge while her mother mends their clothes.”
“Well, is that to be despised?” asked Zay with spirit.
“Why, no, but of course you don’t associate with your dressmaker’s daughter, nor the store clerks though they are nice enough for the places they have to fill in life. If it wasn’t for the mother she might pass muster, and you know this is the most select of schools. That is one reason mother sent me here there was no chance of making undesirable acquaintances. For one thing, the terms are too high,” and Louie Howe bridled.
“Is this Miss Nevins at the highwater mark?” and there was a touch of sarcasm in Zay’s tone.
“Oh let’s quit the higher criticism,” said another. “I want to hear Zay talk, and you’ve been to Berlin and that picturesque Dresden. Did you see the shepherdesses with their crooks, and Corydon making love to them, and Holland—that funny place of canals and windmills and stumpy dutchmen.”
“And, oh, did you see the Kaiser?”
Zay laughed. “Yes, mounted on a fine horse, and the Empress and her pretty daughter in a state carriage. And Willard went to some sort of review with the Ambassador and was presented to the Kaiser who asked him about Annapolis, and some of the training. He thought the great Emperor very affable. Father has been at a few of the functions and seen the royal ladies in their state dresses. Then, there are some splendid professors and scientists—”
“But you didn’t go to Paris?”
“No. Father and Willard spent ten days there while Aunt Kate and I staid with mother. Then she could cross the room without a cane, even. Now she can walk some distance. Oh, girls, its splendid not to have her go on crutches! And she thinks in two years or so we may go to Paris for quite a stay. You know real young girls don’t understand fine pictures and all that! Willard begins his three-years cruise early in January, and in the summer Vincent will graduate and perhaps be sent off somewhere. The doctors wanted her to spend the whole winter about the Mediterranean, but she thought it would be so lovely to have our Christmas together.”