"Is it very stiff and educational?" groaned Dulcie, obeying unwillingly.
"Wait and see! Come under the shade of the lilac bush, it's so hot to sit in the sun."
The girls composed themselves into attitudes of more or less classic elegance, and Miss Adams, book in hand, began to read.
"IDYLL XV
"Gorgo. Is Praxinoë at home?
"Praxinoë. Dear Gorgo, how long it is since you have been here! She is at home. The wonder is that you have got here at last. Eunoë, see that she has a chair. Throw a cushion on it, too.
"Gorgo. It does most charmingly as it is.
"Praxinoë. Do sit down.
"Gorgo. Oh, what a thing spirit is! I have scarcely got to you alive, Praxinoë! What a huge crowd! What hosts of four-in-hands! Everywhere cavalry boots, everywhere men in uniform. And the road is endless: yes, you really live too far away!
"Praxinoë. It is all the fault of that madman of mine! Here he came to the ends of the earth, and took—a hole, not a house, and all that we might not be neighbors. The jealous wretch, always the same, ever for spite!