Dick, though embarrassed himself, was still more annoyed at Dolly’s discomfiture, and spoke up decidedly:
“We don’t mean to be uncivil, Mrs. Fuller. But we’ve never made fashionable calls before, and we don’t know quite how to talk. It’s so different in Chicago.”
“Different in Chicago! I should hope so. My dear Miss Dana and Miss Abbie, you’ll have your hands full with these little ones, won’t you?”
“At first,” said Miss Rachel with dignity. “But we hope to teach them.”
“And we want to learn,” put in Dolly, with an instinctive desire to stand by her aunt against this disagreeable lady.
“Then there’ll be no trouble, I’m sure,” said Mrs. Fuller, but though her words were all right, her tone was a little bit sarcastic, and the twins were conscious of a feeling of defeat, which was far from comfortable.
Then Jack Fuller came into the room.
He was a boy of ten, with fair hair, and a pale, girlish face. He, apparently, had irreproachable manners, and gave his hand to the Dana ladies with just the right degree of cordiality. Then, being introduced to Dick and Dolly, he came and sat on the sofa between them.
Instinctively, Dick felt that he never could like that boy. Jack had scarcely opened his mouth before Dick had dubbed him a “Miss Nancy.” He didn’t believe Jack could run or jump, or do anything that a boy ought to do.
“Do you like to live here?” said Jack at last, by way of opening conversation.