"Why? It's fun to take out the stopper and let yourself bubble over."
"Prudence—"
"Ma'am?"
"I want to ask you something."
"Go right ahead. Questions cheerfully answered; estimates given upon application."
But Carolyn hesitated. Then she said that she wished her cousin would be serious.
"Serious! You don't call me gay, do you? Why, the solemnity that dribbled over me from mamma isn't washed off yet. It will take a whole summer, and several men in love with me at once, and fighting about me, to take away the melancholy that I acquired at Carlsbad."
As she finished speaking, Prudence rose, and stepped out on to the lawn. She ran across it and leaned on the wall at the end of it. Beyond lay the bay, flashing brightly in the sunlight; but her strong eyes did not blench as she gazed.
"Is that the Vireo in the sandy cove?" she asked.
"Yes."