way!" cried
Mavering. "To be sure they will beat. And you ought to be there to see
it. Now, why won't you come, Mrs. Pasmer?" he pleaded, turning to her
mother.
"Oh, I'm afraid we must be getting away from Boston by that time. It's
very tiresome, but there seems to be nobody left; and one can't stay
quite alone, even if you're sick of moving about. Have you ever been--we
think of going there--to Campobello?"
"No; but I hear that it's charming, there. I had a friend who was there
last year, and he said it was charming. The only trouble is it's so far.
You're pretty well on the way to Europe when you get there. You know
it's all hotel life?"
"Yes. It's quite a new place, isn't it?"
"Well, it's been opened up several years. And they say it isn't like
the hotel life anywhere else; it's charming. And there's the very nicest
class of people."
"Very nice Philadelphia people, I hear," said Mrs. Pasmer; "and
Baltimore. Don't you think it's well;" she asked deferentially, and
under correction, if she were hazarding too much, "to see somebody
besides Boston people sometimes--if they're nice? That seems to be one
of the great advantages of living abroad."
"Oh, I think there are nice people everywhere," said the young man, with
the bold expansion of youth.
"Yes," sighed Mrs. Pasmer. "We saw two such delightful young people
coming in and out of the hotel in Rome. We were sure they were English.
And they were from Chicago! But there are not many Western people at
Campobello, are there?"
"I really don't know," said Mavering. "How is it, Boardman? Do many of
your people go there?"
"You know you do make it so frightfully expensive with your money," said
Mrs. Pasmer, explaining with a prompt effect of having known all along
that Boardman was from the West, "You drive us poor people all away."
"I don't think my money would do it," said Boardman quietly.
"Oh, you wait till you're a Syndicate Correspondent," said, Mavering,
putting his hand on his friend's shoulder, and rising by aid of it. He
left Mrs. Pasmer to fill the chasm that had so suddenly yawned between
her and Boardman; and while she tumbled into every sort of flowery
friendliness and compliment, telling him she should look out for his
account of the race with the greatest interest, and expressing the hope
that he would get as far as Campobello during the summer, Mavering found
some minutes for talk with Alice. He was graver with her--far graver
than with
|