train?"

"Certainly. Why not? You don't imagine I was going to let myself be
carried all the way to Boston in ignorance--"

"Then, one infers, the eleven-ten doesn't normally stop at One Hundred
and Twenty-Fifth Street?"

"No. I had to speak to the conductor. Do be quiet. It doesn't matter.
What were you going to say?"

"Nothing much, except that the clothes Miss Manvers stands in are
hardly to be considered an adequate reward."

"True. But you mentioned some suggestion or other--"

"Without being downright about it, thereby sparing Miss Manvers
any embarrassment, she might feel should you disapprove, as I'm
confident you won't--"

This was the woman's turn; she silenced him with a gesture of infinite
ennui. "Why is it," she complained, "that you _never_ get anywhere
without talking all around Robin Hood's barn?"

"Objection," Mr. Savage offered promptly, "on the ground of mixed
metaphor."

"Objection sustained," his sister conceded. "But do come to the
point."

"I wish only to remind you of the news imparted by our respected aunt
in her letter of recent date."

The woman frowned slightly, as with mental effort; then a flash of
comprehension lightened her blue eyes. Immediately her brows mutely
circumflexed a question. A look of profound but illegible significance
passed between the two. Mr. Savage nodded. Mrs. Standish pursed
speculatively her thin, well-made-up lips and visibly took thought,
according to the habit of her sex, by means of a series of intuitive
explosions. Then she nodded vigorously and turned upon Miss Manvers a
bewildering smile, for the first time addressing her directly.

"My dear," she said pleasantly enough--though, of course, the term had
no accent whatever of affection--"this half-witted brother of
mine once in a while stumbles upon the most brilliant inspiration
imaginable. I'm sure he has seen enough of you in this last hour to be
making no mistake in offering you as one answer to a very delicate
question which has been distressing us both for a long time. If you're
not overscrupulous . . ."

She paused with a receptive air.

"I'm sure I don't know what you're driving at," Sally said bluntly;
"but I'm hardly in a position to be nice-minded about trifles."

"It's this way," Savage interposed; "we're offering you a chance to
get away, to enjoy a summer by the seashore, to mix with a lot of
mighty interesting people, and all that sort of thing--everything you
tell me you've b