"Of course I have, aunt. We would have been back long ago, but Alizon was in love with the Italian lakes. Weren't you, Alizon?"
"Yes, I thought they were very beautiful," replied Alizon, who, being a comparative stranger to Aunt Jelly, hardly knew how to speak in a way congenial to that lady, "but I'm afraid it is a very lotos-eating place."
"Humph!" remarked the old gentlewoman, with a sharp glance, "and you don't like lotos-eating."
"No! I think life means something more than idleness."
"For Heaven's sake, child, understand the value of being idle. Don't become a woman with a mission. It's a most detestable class--clatter, clatter, chatter, chatter! They do more harm than good, in my opinion, but then I'm an old woman and my ideas are much behind those of to-day."
"I don't think there's much chance of my becoming a woman with a mission," replied Lady Errington, smiling, "it's not my nature, nor do I think Guy admires them."
"By Jove! no," said Sir Guy, energetically; "those women who turn themselves into feminine men--I can't say I care for them at all. They worry a fellow's life out with their preachings. My ideal of a woman is--my wife."
Lady Errington's eyes smiled a grateful recognition of this compliment, and even Aunt Jelly, who hated a display of any demonstrative affection, was not ill-pleased.
"Well, well," she said grimly; "I'm glad to see a husband appreciate his wife, 'tis such a novelty now-a-days, they generally appreciate someone else's. By-the-way, child, you don't look very strong."
"Don't you think so, aunt?" said Guy in alarm.