It was fun to shop in Miami, full of tourists as it was. They drove to the beaches, for they were obliged to try out the winter bathing, they said, at every place, if only to prove that they could. Ann was deeply interested in the variety of people that they saw, people of every degree of culture, or its entire lack, occasionally. There were “lovely people”, she told her father, and some with hard faces, who did not seem to be happy in spite of the money which they evidently possessed. Wherever he could, Mr. Sterling drove on the roads by the sea, where they all filled eyes and hearts with the beauty of the southern waters and sky.
“Don’t you hope that Grandmother will buy a home down here somewhere?” said Suzanne, as they were on their way back to join the Bentleys.
“Oh, yes!” exclaimed Ann. “Do you really suppose that she will? What do you think, Mother?”
“I should not be surprised,” answered Mrs. Sterling. “Mother begins to feel the winters very much. She would enjoy escaping the worst part of them, the long stretch from the first of January, say. Where would you choose the place for her, children?”
“Either Palm Beach or Miami,” declared Suzanne at once.
“I would rather be a little farther away from so many people,” said Ann. “I loved the looks of Fort Lauderdale as I went through. All those yachts and launches on New River were so wonderful. I like some of the other places that we passed through, too. In the northern places there were those immense old live oaks; down here are the palms. I wouldn’t know which to choose!”
“Probably you couldn’t get Mother to settle north of Palm Beach. You haven’t said where you are going to put your vote, Maurice.”
“Me? Oh, I’m going to have a river front place on New River, so I can dock my yacht at my own front yard.” Maurice gave a smiling look at Ann as he said this. “Don’t you think, Ann, that my plan is good?”
“Very good, if you know where the yacht is coming from.” Ann said this gaily, as usual, but wished that she had not, for Maurice’s face fell and he looked sober for some time.