"She isn't now—not so very handsome, I mean—no handsomer than you are, sister!"
"Jeannie! you forget yourself!" interposed Mrs. Hunt.
"Why, mamma, I did not intend to be rude! Only I thought that belles were always the prettiest ladies that could be found anywhere."
"By no means!" corrected Lewis, willing to help his wife's pet out of a scrape. "There are many descriptions of belles, Jeannie: handsome, rich, fast, and intellectual."
"And as papa was not rich, I suppose you were either fast or intellectual, sister Lucy!" persisted the child.
"I thought her pretty fast when I tried to catch her," said Philip.—"Mrs. Hunt, Mrs. Hammond, Mrs. Benson, have you ladies decided in the course of to-day's congress what watering-place is to be made the fashion by our clique next month?"
Mrs. Hunt replied that they inclined to Newport; principally on account of Lucy and the children, who would all be benefited by the bathing.
Lucy was sure that she should tire of Saratoga or the Catskills in a week, whereas she adored the ocean.
"What says Madame Discretion?" said Lewis, merrily, to his wife.
"Except that it would break up the family party, I had rather stay at home as long as it is prudent to keep the baby in town; then, if you could go with us, spend a month at some mountain farmhouse or seaside cottage," she answered.