VI
MRS. CRASHAW and the OTHERS
Mrs. Crashaw, appearing: "If you mean me, Dr. Lawton—"
Lawton: "I do, my dear friend. What company is complete without you?"
Mrs. Somers, reaching forward to take her hand, while with her disengaged hand she begins to pour her a cup of tea: "None in my house."
Mrs. Crashaw: "Very pretty." Taking her tea. "I hope it isn't complete, either, without the English painter you promised us."
Mrs. Somers: "No, indeed! And a great many other people besides. But haven't you met him yet? I supposed Mrs. Roberts—"
Mrs. Crashaw: "Oh, I don't go to all of Agnes's fandangoes. I was to have seen him at Mrs. Wheeler's—he is being asked everywhere, of course—but he didn't come. He sent his father and mother instead. They were very nice old people, but they hadn't painted his pictures."
Lawton: "They might say his pictures would never have been painted without them."
Bemis: "It was like Heine's going to visit Rachel by appointment. She wasn't in, but her father and mother were; and when he met her afterwards he told her that he had just come from a show where he had seen a curious monster advertised for exhibition—the offspring of a hare and a salmon. The monster was not to be seen at the moment, but the showman said here was monsieur the hare and madame the salmon."
Mrs. Roberts: "What in the world did Rachel say?"