did represent--

CLARA. [_Sitting in the swing._] Oh, well, now don't blame mama! She
couldn't help herself; she always thought you _dreadfully handsome_!
Swing me!

TROTTER. I don't care, anyway. I'm deucedly proud of your mother,--I
mean of _my wife_,--and I'd just as lief throw up the whole society
business and go off and live happily by ourselves.

CLARA. O dear! I think mama would find that awfully dull. Go on, swing
me! [TROTTER _swings her._] Of course, you'll find mama a little
different when you see her all the time. You really won't see much more
of her, though, than you do now. She doesn't get up till noon, and has
her masseuse for an hour every morning, her manicure and her mental
science visitor every other day, and her face steamed three times a
week! She has to lie down a lot, too, but you mustn't mind that; you
must remember she isn't our age!

TROTTER. [_Swings her._] She _suits_ me!

CLARA. That's just what _I feel_! You'll take care of her, and me, too,
all our lives, and that's what makes me so happy. I'm full of plans!
We'll go abroad soon and stay two years. [_He has stopped swinging
her._] Go on, swing me!

TROTTER. [_Holding the swing still._] Say! if you think you are going to
run me and the whole family, you're a Dodo bird! Remember that you're my
daughter; you must wait a little if you want to be a mother-in-law.

[_Sleigh-bells are heard in the distance, coming nearer._

CLARA. Good gracious! If you ask _me_, I think mama has got her hands
full. What's become of Miss Godesby and her brother?

TROTTER. When you went upstairs with your mother, they went down the
road.

CLARA. You know originally the idea was _I_ was to marry you.

TROTTER. Really--

CLARA. [_Laughingly._] Yes, and mama cut me out.

TROTTER. Oh, well, it can't be helped; we can't marry everybody.

CLARA. [_Noticing the bells._] _Somebody else arriving!_ That's
queer--nobody comes here in the winter; that's why we chose it, because
it would be quiet! Let's play this game.

[_Going to an iron frog on a box which stands near the house._

TROTTER. Perhaps it's Mrs. Sterling.

CLARA. No; if she was coming at all, she'd have come in time for the
wedding. [_She takes up the disks which lie beside the frog._] I should
hate to get married like you and mama--no splurge and no presents! Why,
the presents'd be half the fun! And think of all those you and she've
given in your life, and have lost now a good chance of gett