onto this same
nurse for years if she'll stay; she's _so_ good, and only ten dollars a
week. When Rosemary grows up and comes out, she will be her maid, you
know, Lady Betty. Do you ever have trained nurse-maids in England?"

"No," I said. "Fancy!"

"Oh, it's a splendid thing for a girl--nothing like it. You see the
woman looks after her like a maid and a nurse both; makes sure her
bath's the right temperature, takes care of her if she gets the grippe;
sits up and gives her beef tea or chocolate after balls, massages her,
and things like that. I used to have one myself, but a woman after
she's married is different from a Bud. She _must_ have a French woman
for her hair if she respects herself."

I said meekly that I supposed so; and then Mrs. Taylour left me to
myself for a few minutes, while she talked to Mrs. Ess Kay. They
compared notes about appendicitis, which they called the fashionable
complaint, and Mrs. Taylour suddenly exclaimed:

"Oh, my dear, I have had just _the_ smartest idea. As soon as Doctor
Pearson will let me go to Blue Bay I tell you I mean to wake them up
there. What I'll do, is to have an appendicitis lunch. It'll be rather
_conducive_, won't it?"

"You _are_ the most original thing!" exclaimed Mrs. Ess Kay. "How are
you going to manage?"

"Oh, nobody shall be invited except those who have had it; and the
great feature will be the decorations; operating instruments, you know,
and hospital nurses, and--oh, I don't know what all yet, but I'm
thinking it out. It was Cora Pitchley's Cat Lunch that put it in my
head." She turned to me. "In America we give Women's lunches," she
said. "Only women are asked, or a Cat Lunch couldn't be worked. Is it
so with you, too?"

"I'm afraid our women would think it a bore if there were no men," I
answered. "Anyway, there always are some, I believe. I'm not out yet.
Do tell about the Cat Lunch."

"Oh, it was only a pretty smart trick of my friend, Mrs. Pitchley's.
She was a rich young widow from the West, with millions, and very
pretty and lively, so some of the old cats snubbed her and tried to
keep her out of New York society, when I was introducing her around.
But she got her foot in at last, so tight they couldn't help
themselves, for the Van Tortens took her up, and she was _made_. So
what did she do but give a big lunch, inviting all the women who had
been the meanest to her, and not another soul. The _whole_ table
decoration consisted of cats; vases