"You will be glad to see your friends there,—and your family?"
"Ah, yes, madame,—it is such a pleasure."
"I should like to see your sister, Perside."
"I will present her, madame; she will be honored."
"And it is she that the blacksmith is going to marry? Do you know," and Mrs. Nimmo laughed tremulously, "I have been thinking all the time that it was you."
"Now I get at the cause of your discontent," soliloquized Vesper, above, "my poor little mother."
Rose surveyed her companion in astonishment: "I thought all the Bay knew."
"But I am not the Bay," said Mrs. Nimmo, with attempted playfulness; "I am Boston."
A shadow crossed Rose's face. "Yes, madame, I know. I might have told you, but I did not think; and you are delicate,—you would not ask."
"No, I am not delicate," said Mrs. Nimmo, honestly. "I am inclined to be curious, or interested in other people, we will say,—I think you are very kind to be making matrimonial plans for other young women, and not to think of yourself."