"You never can tell what he's going to say."

Mrs. Curwen: "I should think you would be afraid of him."

Mrs. Somers, with a little shrug: "Oh no; he's quite harmless. It's just
a little way he has." To Mr. and Mrs. Miller, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Bemis,
and Dr. Lawton, who all appear together: "Ah, how do you do? So glad to
see you! So very kind of you! I didn't suppose _you_ would venture out.
And you too, Doctor?" She begins to pour out tea for them, one after
another, with great zeal.

V

_DR. LAWTON, MR. and MRS. MILLER, YOUNG MR. and MRS. BEMIS,
and the OTHERS_

Dr. Lawton: "Yes, I too. It sounded very much as if I were Brutus also."
He stirs his tea and stares round at the company. "It seems to me that I
have met these conspirators before. That's what makes Boston
insupportable. You're always meeting the same people!"

Campbell: "We all feel it as keenly as you do, Doctor."

Lawton, looking sharply at him: "Oh! _you_ here? I might have expected
it. Where is your aunt?"

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?"

Lawton: "Ah, that's what these brilliant anecdotes never tell.