d, "you can't make it too
complete; and I consider that this limp of mine adds the last touch."

"It's no use to sit up for them," Mrs. Elmore said, when she and her
husband had come in from calling good wishes and last instructions after
them from the balcony, as their gondola pushed away. "We sha'n't see
anything more of _them_ till morning. Now this," she added, "is
something like the gayety that people at home are always fancying in
Europe. Why, I can remember when I used to imagine that American
tourists figured brilliantly in _salons_ and _conversazioni_, and spent
their time in masking and throwing _confetti_ in carnival, and going to
balls and opera. I didn't know what American tourists were, then, and
how dismally they moped about in hotels and galleries and churches. And
I didn't know how stupid Europe was socially,--how perfectly dead and
buried it was, especially for young people. It would be fun if things
happened so that Lily never found it out! I don't think two offers
already,--or three, if you count Rose-Black,--are very bad for _any_
girl; and now this ball, coming right on top of it, where she will see
hundreds of handsome officers! Well, she'll never miss Patmos, at this
rate, will she?"

"Perhaps she had better never have left Patmos," suggested Elmore
gravely.

"I don't know what you mean, Owen," said his wife, as if hurt.

"I mean that it's a great pity she should give herself up to the same
frivolous amusements here that she had there. The only good that Europe
can do American girls who travel here is to keep them in total exile
from what they call a good time,--from parties and attentions and
flirtations; to force them, through the hard discipline of social
deprivation, to take some interest in the things that make for
civilization,--in history, in art, in humanity."

"Now, there I differ with you, Owen. I think American girls are the
nicest girls in the world, just as they are. And I don't see any harm in
the things you think are so awful. You've lived so long here among your
manuscripts that you've forgotten there is any such time as the present.
If you are getting so Europeanized, I think the sooner we go home the
better."

"_I_ getting Europeanized!" began Elmore indignantly.

"Yes, Europeanized! And I don't want you to be so severe with Lily,
Owen. The child stands in terror of you now; and if you keep on in this
way, she can't draw a natural breath in the house."

There is always