“‘I’ve been wondering, as I looked at all these people rushing along as if their lives depended on their getting to a certain place on a certain second—these people with set faces and eyes that seem to see a long way off—I’ve just been wondering what they all find to do.’
“‘My dear,’ said Jack, and he laughed in a way I could not understand, ‘It’s easy to see you have lived a long way from little old New York, and I’m mighty glad you have. I’d rather you would face all these people for the first time with me along.’
“‘But you haven’t answered my question,’ I insisted, for I was still filled with wonder at the great throng surging 46 past us, whose purpose never seemed to change or falter.
“‘You asked what they were all doing,’ said Jack. ‘Well, for the most part, they are busily and congenially engaged in doing to the best advantage the next poor victim that comes to their net.’
“Somehow, that little remark put a different aspect on everything and Fifth Avenue didn’t hold quite the same charm for me that it had. Just the same,” she added, brightly, “I like New York mighty well. The only thing I didn’t like about it was that it didn’t hold my girls, and I did miss you all so much!”
“Oh, I don’t see how you would ever find time to miss anybody with all those wonderful new sights and sounds around you all the time,” said Evelyn, naively.
Marjorie sniffed. “Of course, we know you wouldn’t,” she said.
“I wouldn’t,” said Evelyn, unabashed. “I’d be too awfully excited all the time.”
“Oh, Evelyn, Evelyn!” said Lucile, laughing. “Won’t you ever learn to cover up your faults?”
“I’ll have to get some first,” she retorted, impishly; and the girls, who were in a mood when everything strikes them funny, began to laugh. The more they laughed, the more they tried to stop, the more impossible it became, until the whole house rang with merriment. Lucile was the first to recover herself.