"You amaze me, madam," gasped the scientist. "Adele seems to me to be very sensitive to the beautiful, and extremely appreciative of the poetry of life. Beatrice is of a more practical turn of mind. A mind of much vigor and strength, I grant, but still uninclined toward those things that make life graceful."
"Doctor Raymond," spoke Mrs. Medulla quickly, "there is no nature that is deficient in its musical phrase, least of all a personality like your daughter's. In her direct and genuine nature there is a 'Leitmotif' of pure sweet melody that will enrich the life of its discoverer. It awaits only the master touch. Will you be the one to give it?"
"What do you mean?" asked the Lepidopterist.
"This," she said, speaking warmly. "Beatrice is a warm-hearted, loving, impulsive girl. She needs very tender guidance just at this time to develop into the noble woman that she is capable of becoming. The child is doing much for herself, but you should aid her. No doubt you will consider the liberty unwarranted, but it must be excused by the interest I take in her. Your niece is a very lovely girl. Any other girl who is brought into relationship with her falls into second place unless she is as beautiful. Beatrice was associated with her for ten years in her home. Naturally she took second place there. If you are not careful she will be second in your home and heart also."
"Really," began Doctor Raymond with some stiffness.
"Mamma, mamma!" Percival broke into the room followed by the two cousins. "I don't like Adele one bit. She is wearing Beatrice's new hat; and she shouldn't."
"Percival!" exclaimed Mrs. Medulla in shocked tones.
"I don't care," cried the lad shrilly. "I don't want her to wear my chum's things."
"I said that she might," protested Bee, while Adele stood speechless with mortification. "If there was another boy who lived with you, Percival, you would often wear each other's things."
"You are rude, Percival," reprimanded his mother in severe accents. "It is just as Beatrice says: girls always do it."