By this time the boys were at ease.
“What is an ‘environment,’ Aunt Anne?” said Ned. “Is a wife an environment?”
Ellett laughed. “Sometimes she is.”
“Environments are surroundings—a man’s surroundings.” She always answered the boys seriously.
“But does a wife surround a man?” urged Ned, oblivious of his place as a boy among elders in his keen pursuit of a meaning.
“I should think so!” said Carington. “Wait till your turn comes! You will see!”
“I am quite sure Dorothy Maybrook is a fair illustration,” said Anne. “It is a good sermon on the conduct of the matrimonial life to see that woman what she calls ‘p’int’ poor old Hiram.”
“An interesting person,” returned Carington. “Don’t you think so?”
“It hurts a fellow to see a woman as placid as that,” remarked Ellett. Whereupon Miss Anne adjusted her glasses, and took a look at the small, rotund man.
“Why?” she said. “Why does it hurt you?”