"Yes, that's just what I mean. I don't suppose any one in Boston except the doctor, and two or three very old people, have ever been inside that door."
"Yes, that's true," added Edith. "I've heard my mother speak of it. Mme. du Launy is terribly peculiar."
"I should think she'd be lonely," said Julia.
"I dare say she is," replied Frances, "but it's awfully selfish to shut up a great house like that."
"Why does she do it?"
"Oh, I believe, when she came back from Europe the second time she set out to give a great ball. She sent invitations to every one, no matter whether people had called on her or not. Of course very few people went, only her relations and a few others. This made her so angry that she vowed she'd have nothing more to do with people in Boston. Not long afterward her husband died, then her children died or turned out badly, and she has just lived alone ever since."
"It sounds rather sad," said Julia, when Frances had finished.
"Nonsense, Julia," said Brenda, "you're so sentimental."
"No, she isn't at all," cried Edith, "it is really sad. I wonder what became of the children."
Here Belle spoke up. "I've heard that the boys all died. One of them ran away to sea and was drowned. But I believe the girl married some one her mother didn't like, and so she disinherited her. She may be living somewhere, but she must be an old woman herself, for my grandmother says that Mme. du Launy is about eighty."