Lawrence laughed. "You can bear anything," he said. "But blue suits you."
"It's just perfect," Mrs. Thayer repeated. "I see nothing to find fault with. Yes, Christina can bear anything and wear anything. It saves a great deal of trouble. When I was a girl I had a different complexion. I wasn't a peony, but I was a rose—not a white rose; and anything shading on red I could not wear; not purple, nor claret, nor even ashes of roses. It was a regular perplexity, to get variety enough with the small number of shades at my disposal; for orange did not become me, either. Well, I can wear anything now, too," she added with a half laugh. "And it is nothing to anybody."
"Mamma, you know better than that," said Christina.
"Now," said Lawrence, "the question is, when shall we take possession? The house is all ready for us."
"There is no use in taking possession till we are ready to keep it; and it would be dull to stay in town all winter, wouldn't it?" said Christina. "Whatever should we do?"
"Very dull," said Mrs. Thayer. "It is a long while yet before the season begins. Better be anywhere else."
"I was thinking of Brighton," said Christina. "I think I should like that."
"After the Peacocks," said Lawrence. "We are due there, you know, for a visit."
"Oh, after the Peacocks, of course. But then,—do you think, Lawrence, we could do anything better than go to Brighton? Till the season opens?"
Brighton quite met Mr. St. Leger's views of what was desirable.