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ence, hadn't settled down to any sort of career. He had always an intention of doing something in a vague way; but now the thought that he was idle made him for the first time decidedly uneasy, for he had an indistinct notion that Irene couldn't approve of such a life. This feeling haunted him as he was making a round of calls that day. He did not return to lunch or dinner--if he had done so he would have found that lunch was dinner and that dinner was supper--another vital distinction between the hotel and the cottage. The rest of the party had gone to the cliffs with the artist, the girls on a pretense of learning to sketch from nature. Mr. King dined with his cousin. "You are a bad boy, Stanhope," was the greeting of Mrs. Bartlett Glow, "not to come to me. Why did you go to the hotel?" "Oh, I thought I'd see life; I had an unaccountable feeling of independence. Besides, I've a friend with me, a very clever artist, who is re-seeing his country after an absence of some years. And there are some other people." "Oh, yes. What is her name?" "Why, there is quite a party. We met them at different places. There's a very bright New York girl, Miss Lamont, and her uncle from Richmond." ("Never heard of her," interpolated Mrs. Glow.) "And a Mr. and Mrs. Benson and their daughter, from Ohio. Mr. Benson has made money; Mrs. Benson, good-hearted old lady, rather plain and--" "Yes, I know the sort; had a falling-out with Lindley Murray in her youth and never made it up. But what I want to know is about the girl. What makes you beat about the bush so? What's her name?" "Irene. She is an uncommonly clever girl; educated; been abroad a good deal, studying in Germany; had all advantages; and she has cultivated tastes; and the fact is that out in Cyrusville--that is where they live--You know how it is here in America when the girl is educated and the old people are not--" "The long and short of it is, you want me to invite them here. I suppose the girl is plain, too--takes after her mother?" "Not exactly. Mr. Forbes--that's my friend--says she's a beauty. But if you don't mind, Penelope, I was going to ask you to be a little civil to them." "Well, I'll admit she is handsome--a very striking-looking girl. I've seen them driving on the Avenue day after day. Now, Stanhope, I don't mind asking them here to a five o'clock; I suppose the mother will have to come. If she was staying with somebody here it would be easier. Y
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