"How tiresome!" said Isabella.
"Well, I don't think so," replied Madam Passmore. "When you come to my time of life, you won't want to be sent spinning about the room like so many teetotums. Yet I was reckoned a good dancer once, to be sure."
"And you liked it, Mother?" asked Celia.
"Yes, I suppose I did. I was young and foolish," said Madam Passmore, with a little sigh. "But really, when you come to think it over, 'tis only fit for children, I think. I would rather have a good game of hunt-the-slipper—there is more sense in it, and quite as much moving about, and a great deal more fun."
"So very vulgar!" sighed Isabella, contemptuously.
"Very vulgar, Madam!" bowed Harry, who had entered while his mother was speaking; "almost as vulgar as eating and sleeping."
"I wish you would go away, Harry. I don't like arguing with you."
"By all means, Madam," said Harry, bowing himself out of the parlor.
Madam Passmore laughed. "Well, girls," she said, "I think I shall have to give the ladies some tea, though it is a new-fangled drink; and as you are used to pour it for your sisters, Bell, you had better take the charge of it."
"Very well, Mother."