"Have—what?" gasped the Lady.
"Nephews and nieces," said our Uncle Peter.
"O—h," said the Lady.
"Had their names all selected I mean," explained our Uncle Peter. "Their virtues, their vices, their avocations, all decided upon.——Ruthy of course might have done with less freckles, and Carol here doesn't quite come up to specifications yet concerning muscle and brawn—and it was never my original intention of course that any young whipper-snapper niece of mine should engage herself to the first boy she fell in love with.—But taken all in all,—all in all I say—"
"I think," frowned the Lady, "you are perfectly——absurd."
The word "absurd" didn't seem to be at all the word she meant to say. She tried to bite it back but got it all mixed up with a little giggle. She bit the giggle instead. It twisted her mouth like a bitter taste.
Our Uncle Peter looked very sympathetic.
"You ought to get away somewhere on a journey," he said. "There's nothing like it as a tonic for the mind. Even if it's a place you don't like very much it clarifies the vision so,—dissipates all one's minor worries."
"—Minor worries?" said the Lady.
"Travel! Yes that's the thing!" said our Uncle Peter quite positively. All in a minute he seemed to rustle with time tables and maps and smell of cinders and railroad tickets. "Now there's Bermuda for instance!" he suggested. "Just a month of blue waters and white sand would put the roses back in your cheeks.—And Dicky—"