“I can show him how to use it,” said Lillie.

“He and his sister keep a nice sort of old-fashioned place there, and jog about in an old countrified carriage, picking up poor children and visiting schools.  She is a very superior woman, that sister.”

“I don’t like superior women,” said Lillie.

“But you must like her, you know.  John is perfectly devoted to her, and I suppose she is to be a fixture in the establishment.”

“We shall see about that,” said Lillie.  “One thing at a time.  I don’t mean he shall live at Springdale.  It’s horridly pokey to live in those little country towns.  He must have a house in New York.”

“And a place at Newport for the summer,” said Belle Trevors.

“Yes,” said Lillie, “a cottage in Newport does very well in the season; and then a country place well fitted up to invite company to in the other months of summer.”

“Delightful,” said Belle, “if you can make him do it.”

“See if I don’t,” said Lillie.

“You dear, funny creature, you,—­how you do always ride on the top of the wave!” said Belle.

“It’s what I was born for,” said Lillie.  “By the by, Belle, I got a letter from Harry last night.”

“Poor fellow, had he heard”—­

“Why, of course not.  I didn’t want he should till it’s all over.  It’s best, you know.”

“He is such a good fellow, and so devoted,—­it does seem a pity.”

“Devoted! well, I should rather think he was,” said Lillie.  “I believe he would cut off his right hand for me, any day.  But I never gave him any encouragement.  I’ve always told him I could be to him only as a sister, you know.”

“You ought not to write to him,” said Belle.

“What can I do?  He is perfectly desperate if I don’t, and still persists that he means to marry me some day, spite of my screams.”

“Well, he’ll have to stop making love to you after you’re married.”

“Oh, pshaw!  I don’t believe that old-fashioned talk.  Lovers make a variety in life.  I don’t see why a married woman is to give up all the fun of having admirers.  Of course, one isn’t going to do any thing wrong, you know; but one doesn’t want to settle down into Darby and Joan at once.  Why, some of the young married women, the most stunning belles at Newport last year, got a great deal more attention after they were married than they did before.  You see the fellows like it, because they are so sure not to be drawn in.”

“I think it’s too bad on us girls, though,” said Belle.  “You ought to leave us our turn.”

“Oh!  I’ll turn over any of them to you, Belle,” said Lillie.  “There’s Harry, to begin with.  What do you say to him?”

“Thank you, I don’t think I shall take up with second-hand articles,” said Belle, with some spirit.

But here the entrance of the chamber-maid, with a fresh dress from the dressmaker’s, resolved the conversation into a discussion so very minute and technical that it cannot be recorded in our pages.