"I'm going East to school this fall" she said. "D'you think I'll like
it? I'm going to New York to Miss Bulge's. It's very strict, but you
see over the weekends I'm going to live at home with the family in our
New York house, because father heard that the girls had to go walking
two by two."
"Your father wants you to be proud," observed John.
"We are," she answered, her eyes shining with dignity. "None of us has
ever been punished. Father said we never should be. Once when my
sister Jasmine was a little girl she pushed him downstairs and he just
got up and limped away.
"Mother was--well, a little startled," continued Kismine, "when she
heard that you were from--from where you _are_ from, you know.
She said that when she was a young girl--but then, you see, she's a
Spaniard and old-fashioned."
"Do you spend much time out here?" asked John, to conceal the fact
that he was somewhat hurt by this remark. It seemed an unkind allusion
to his provincialism.
"Percy and Jasmine and I are here every summer, but next summer
Jasmine is going to Newport. She's coming out in London a year from
this fall. She'll be presented at court."
"Do you know," began John hesitantly, "you're much more sophisticated
than I thought you were when I first saw you?"
"Oh, no, I'm not," she exclaimed hurriedly. "Oh, I wouldn't think of
being. I think that sophisticated young people are _terribly_
common, don't you? I'm not all, really.
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