Louise at once thought she knew what was coming. She smiled as she replied: "Out fishing."
"And with whom, may I ask?"
"With Betty Gallup, Uncle Abram's housekeeper."
"But the man?"
"Oh! Mr. Tapp, you mean? A very pleasant young man, auntie."
"That is what I was told, Louise," her aunt said mournfully. "With young Tapp. And you have been seen with him frequently. It is being remarked by the whole colony. Of course, you can mean nothing by this intimacy. It arises from your thoughtlessness, I presume. You must understand that he is not—er——Well, the Tapps are not of our set, Louise."
"My goodness, no!" laughed the girl cheerfully. "The Tapps are real
Cape Codders, I believe."
Aunt Euphemia raised her eyebrows and her lorgnette together. "I do not understand you, I fear. What the Tapps are by blood, I do not know. But they are not in society at all—not at all!"
"Not in society?" repeated Louise, puzzled indeed.
"Scarcely. Of course, as Mrs. Perriton says, the way the cottagers are situated here at The Beaches, the Tapps must be treated with a certain friendliness. That quite impossible 'I. Tapp,' as he advertises himself, owns all the Point and might easily make it very disagreeable for the rest of the colony if he so chose."