and, with a little laugh, kissed Bert. She looked particularly
young and lovely in what Nancy supposed to be a carefully-selected
costume; later she realized that all Dorothy's clothes gave this
impression. She said that the baby was out, when Nancy asked for
him, and that Katharine would take care of them.

Katharine, an impassive maid, led them upstairs, and to the large
room in which their suit cases already stood. Dorothy had said,
"After you change, come down and have something to drink!" but
Nancy had nothing prettier than the taffeta, except her evening
gown, and as the sunshine was streaming into the room, she could
not change to that. So she merely freshened her appearance, and
wasted fifteen or twenty minutes in a close inspection of the
room, before they went down. To her somewhat shy question Bert
responded enthusiastically, "You look lovely!"

They went through empty open rooms, talking as naturally as they
could, and smilingly joined the others on the porch. Tea and other
drinks were being dispensed by Elaine, whose attention was
meanwhile absorbed by two young men. Dorothy, lying almost flat in
a wicker chair, with her small silk-shod ankles crossed, was
lazily arguing some question of golf scores.

She introduced the new-comers, and as Bert, somewhat more at home
in his cousin's house than his wife was, fell into conversation
with the middle-aged man nearest him, Dorothy dutifully addressed
herself to Nancy. They spoke of Bert's mother, and of Boston, and
Dorothy asked Nancy if she liked tennis--or golfing--or yachting?
There was to be quite a large dance at the club to-night, and an
entertainment before it.