"Does it shut them out?"
"Why, of course! How can you ask? What else will shut them out? All that makes the difference between a woman of the world and a milkmaid."
"This little girl, I understand, then, is awkward and inelegant?"
"She is nothing of the kind!" Tom burst out. "Ridiculous!" But Dillwyn waited for Miss Julia's answer.
"I cannot call her just awkward," said Mrs. Caruthers.
"N-o," said Julia, "perhaps not. She has been living with Mrs. Wishart, you know, and has got accustomed to a certain set of things. She does not strike you unpleasantly in society, seated at a lunch table, for instance; but of course all beyond the lunch table is like London to a Laplander."
Tom flung himself out of the room.
"And that is what you are going to Florida for?" pursued Dillwyn.
"You have guessed it! Yes, indeed. Do you know, there seems to be nothing else to do. Tom is in actual danger. I know he goes very often to Mrs. Wishart's; and you know Tom is impressible; and before we know it he might do something he would be sorry for. The only thing is to get him away."
"I think I will go to Mrs. Wishart's too," said Philip. "Do you think there would be danger?"