"How thoroughly feminine!" Jack laughed.
"Of course you can't understand," Katrine struck in. "I agree with Aunt Anne entirely. Of course one would rather lose money than to give a man a chance to crow over her."
The talk was thus drawn into the inexhaustible discussion of feminine and masculine characteristics, that topic about which revolves two thirds of all the small talk of the world. Then it drifted back to the personal news of the letters.
"I don't think Billy Rafton's to be congratulated," announced Tab emphatically, in reference to a recent wedding. "Edna Leighton has plenty of money of course, and is a stunning girl and all that; but she's so horribly ambitious that she won't give poor Billy a minute's peace."
"And Billy is one of the most quiet men alive," put in Jack.
"Ambitious?" queried Katrine. "How? I've known her pretty well, and to me she always seemed nice. Certainly she's clever."
"So she is clever," Jerry assented; "but of course that'll make it harder for Billy to stand out against her."
"She naturally would have the instinct to get ahead in the world," commented Castleport. "Her mother was a Farquhar."
"Mr. Castleport," remonstrated Mrs. Fairhew, "that remark is too feminine to be worthy of you."
"Do you regret that I didn't leave it for you to say?" he asked saucily. "I know you entirely agree with me."