She made me see it, as she had seen it from around the door jamb. Mr. Tappan Tillinghast had sat looking at the elder Miss Ingoldsby. He gave the illusion of sitting, as now, his small head thrust towards her and his mild eyes respectfully adoring her, for a greater length of time than the lady would care to admit; and Miss Augusta had for years pretended, as she pretended today, to be in ignorance of his regard for her. His long hands, loosely clasped, drooped between his elegant knees. Eva said she was convinced that the criticism he now made on Miss Augusta was his first: “I think, Augusta, that you’re hard on her.” The elder Miss Ingoldsby drew her handsome form up to its full display of well preserved opulence, while her clear skin flushed with annoyance. “And why, pray, do you think such a thing?” Eva said it was evident that he would deprecate any point of difference between them. “Ladies understand each other,” he seems to have murmured like a poltroon. Thus released from supervision of her admirer, the elder Miss Ingoldsby turned upon Mrs. Van Suydam the fine flame of her substantial backing. But Mrs. Van Suydam’s eyes clung persistently to what her hands were about. She stated firmly that she had expressed no opinion. “That,” Miss Augusta had then criticized, “is where you make your mistake, Lavinia. You hold off from directing these two young people. If you would listen to me----” And the younger Miss Ingoldsby had then incontinently burst into giggles. She clapped her plump hand over her mouth and rolled her eyes at her sister’s confident face. “How can Lavinia have a word to say about it, when it’s a question of Nicholas’ wife running away to get out of having a baby?” “So that has come up!” I interjected. “I’ve been wondering when it would.” “Oh, it bobs up like the spring flowers,” said Eva lightly. “But it wasn’t a remark that went down at the Van Suydam establishment. Miss Augusta bristled. She spoke from her chest when she said ‘As a topic of conversation between unmarried ladies and a gentleman, I should scarcely select that of--of----Ahem!’ With intolerant delicacy she dropped out of the chat the future of the Van Suydam family tree. ‘Enough!’ she decreed, when Miss Lois again pried into my affairs.”