"Everything else? Of course I haven't. Who has, in fact? But my pink dress is turned wrong side out, and packed."
"Have you a flat?" says she.
"A flat! I? Not that I can call my own. Dempster has introduced half a dozen, but I don't claim them."
"Oh, I don't mean men, but a broad straw flat that answers for a bonnet and an umbrella."
"No," says I; "I have a Japanese thing that opens like a toad-stool, and shuts like a policeman's club. Will that do? That Japanese embassador gave it to me, with such a tender look. I never open it that his smile does not fall upon me like sunshine in a shady place."
"That will be distinguished; take it, by all means. But you will want the straw flat, and a bathing-dress as well."
"Now, Cousin E. E., says I, "what do you mean?"
"Why, you mean to bathe, of course?"
"Cousin E. E., have you ever seen a Vermont lady—not to say a woman of genius—who did not bathe?" says I, with dignity.
"But you will go into the water?"