Lucy tried to look demure, but could not help feeling a great fool. No one was careful with her at home; or, at all events, she had not noticed it.

“About old Mr. Emerson — I hardly know. No, he is not tactful; yet, have you ever noticed that there are people who do things which are most indelicate, and yet at the same time — beautiful?”

“Beautiful?” said Miss Bartlett, puzzled at the word. “Are not beauty and delicacy the same?”

“So one would have thought,” said the other helplessly. “But things are so difficult, I sometimes think.”

She proceeded no further into things, for Mr. Beebe reappeared, looking extremely pleasant.