This proposal was not received with any approbation by his uncle's family.
"Now, Fred," said his cousin Emily, "this is too bad. We were going to have such a pleasant time at Lake George this summer, and had relied upon you to go with us. Father will have to be away a great deal, and I am sure I don't know what we shall do without you to go about with us. I have asked Bessie Graham to accompany us, too, and I particularly wanted you to become better acquainted with her."
"Bessie Graham! Why, she is a little girl."
"She is nearly seventeen," replied Emily.
"Well, she is a very small specimen of womankind, and I have no particular admiration for little women; besides, she is somewhat of a chatter-box, is she not?"
"She talks a little, but not too much," was the reply.
"And laughs a great deal. I like dignified manners better."
"For instance, Miss Adelaide Marshall's," said Emily, with a little irritation in her tone. "You are going to the White Mountains, you say?"
"Yes."
"And I heard Miss Marshall say, the other day, that she intended to pass two or three weeks there; so that accounts for your plan. It is a most absurd fancy of yours to fall in love with that iceberg. I have as much expectation of seeing you return with Mount Washington in your pocket, as with Miss Marshall on your arm."