“I will be revenged for that,” said Tom. “When you slight my mustache you touch me in my tenderest point.”
“Mary,” said Imogene sharply, “I wish you would stop talking nonsense.”
Imogene disliked particularly the familiarity that marked Mary’s conversation with our hero. Though she had known him equally long, she did not venture upon a similar tone, nor would she have succeeded very well in badinage, for she had little sense of humor. It made her angry to think Tom was more intimate with her poor cousin than with herself.
“Let us be serious, then,” said Tom. “Is it true that you are going to a boarding-school, Mary?”
“Ask Imogene.”
Tom turned to Imogene.
“Very probable,” said Imogene snappishly.
“And shall you go too?”
“Oh, no,” answered the young lady. “I should not be willing to give up my fine home for the shabby accommodations of a boarding-school.”
“Then why is your cousin to go?”