"Naturally," said Maud.
"There!" exclaimed Mary, with evident triumph.
"We agree," said Eve, "that some of us should keep ourselves more to ourselves."
And she looked sternly at the triplets. But then she turned and looked sternly at Mary and rose to her feet.
"We think," she said with a j'accuse intonation, "that those who haven't kept themselves to themselves should, and that those who have—shouldn't. Maud and I, for instance, haven't the slightest objection to being fetched for and carried for by attractive young men. Have we, Maud? But hitherto, as must have been obvious to the veriest nincompoop, we have done our own fetching and carrying."
There was a short silence. Mary blushed. Arthur fidgeted. He was wondering if snails preferred the human voice or whistling.
"I'm quite sure," said Maud, "that I haven't been wandering over the hills with future earls, or lost in swamps with interesting invalids, or basked morning after morning in the sunny smile of a gourmet——"
Mary paled under this attack.
"Mr. Langham is altogether different," she said.