"That was right," said Nora approvingly. "I think it's ridiculous for fathers to cut their children off with a penny, the way they used to."
"Well," responded Frances, "I think it's a great deal more ridiculous for people to marry beneath them."
"Of course you'd think that, Frances," interposed Belle.
"There, there, don't begin to quarrel, children," said Nora. "Go on with the story, Frances. What did Mme. du Launy do when she got her money?"
"Oh, she brought her Frenchman and her children to Boston, and she lived at a hotel while she began to build this house. Some people went to see her, but the Frenchman was a terribly ill-mannered little thing, and nobody liked him because he was so familiar. Mme. du Launy and he were hardly ever invited anywhere, and they spent most of their time driving about in a great carriage which held the whole family, and a maid and governess."
"I should think they would have stopped building the house."
"Oh, no," said Edith, "they kept on, and after a while they went to Europe to buy things for it. They had more than a ship-load, and they say that everything was perfectly beautiful,—foreign rugs, and tapestry, and glass, and gilt furniture."
"Dear me, I should love to have seen it."
"Well, it's all there in the house now, but you'd have to be a good deal smarter than any one I know to see it."
"Why Frances, do you mean that no one ever goes there?" asked Julia.