Page:Maud Howe - A Newport Aquarelle.djvu/88

 The lady laughed as she asked the question, and Larkington, not knowing what to answer, laughed too.

He was not quite sure whether she was in earnest or in jest. There was a certain want of softness about the voice of the lady with the three-syllabled name, a certain independence of manner, which did not please him, though he thought her pretty and bright. The pillow behind her slipped to the ground as she sat looking at the group of people at the other end of the boat. Larkington started to pick it up for her, but she had involuntarily stooped and regained it.

Then she laughed and said,— "If Miss Carleton had dropped that pillow, it would never have occurred to her that she might pick it up. You see that I quite naturally leaned forward to get it, though you were so near me. That is the difference between the New York and Boston woman. We expect nothing from mankind; they regard the male sex as simply created for their