Mrs. Roberts: "And that fall of the skirt, Amy; that skirt is _full_ of character!" She discovers Mr. Campbell behind the tea-urn. He has Mrs. Somers's light wrap on his shoulders, and her fan in his hand, and he alternately hides his blushes with it, and coquettishly folds it and pats his mouth in a gross caricature of Mrs. Somers's manner. In rising he twitches his coat forward in a similar burlesque of a lady's management of her skirt. "Why, where is Amy, Willis?" Campbell: "Gone a moment. Some trouble about--the hot water." Lawton: "Hot water that you've been getting into? Ah, young man, look me in the eye!" Campbell: "Your glass one, Doctor?" Young Mr. Bemis: "Why, my dear, has your father got a glass eye?" Mrs. Bemis: "Of _course_ he hasn't! What an idea! I don't know what Mr. Campbell means." Lawton: "I've no doubt he wishes I had a glass eye--two of them, for that matter. But that isn't answering my question. Where is Mrs. Somers?" Campbell: "That was my sister's question, and I did answer it. Have some tea, ladies? I'm glad you like my portrait, and that you think he's got my lovely turn of the head, and the way I hold my fan, and the character of my skirt; but I agree with you that it isn't half as pretty as I am." The Ladies: "Oh, what shall we do to him? Prescribe for us, Doctor." Campbell: "No, no! I want the Doctor's services myself. I don't want him to give me his medicines. I want him to give me away." Lawton: "You're tired of giving yourself away, then?" Campbell: "It's of no use. They won't have me." Lawton: "Who won't?" Campbell: "Oh, I'll leave Mrs. Somers to say." XII _MRS. SOMERS and the OTHERS_ Mrs. Somers, radiantly reappearing: "Say what?" She has hidden the traces of her tears from every one but the ladies by a light application of powder, and she knows that they all know she has been crying, and this makes her a little more smiling. "Say what?" She addresses the company in general rather than Campbell. Campbell, with caricatured tenderness: "Say yes." Mrs. Somers: "What does he mean, Doctor?" Lawton: "Oh, I'm afraid he's past all surgery. I give him over to you, Mrs. Somers." Campbell: "There, now. She wasn't the last to do it!" Mrs. Somers, with the resolution of a widow: "Well, I suppose there's nothing else for it, then. I'll see what can be done for your patient, Doctor." She passes her hand through Campbell's arm, where he continues to stand behind the tea-table. Mrs. Roberts, falling upon her and kissing her: "Amy, you don't _mean_ it!" Mrs. Bemis, embracing her in turn: "I never can believe it." Mrs. Crashaw: "It is ridiculous! What, Willis?" Mrs. Miller: "It does seem too nice to be true." Bemis: "You astonish us!" Roberts: "We never should have dreamed of it." Young Mr. Bemis: "You _must_ give us time to realize it." Mrs. Wharton: "Is it _possible_?" Miss Bayly: "_Is_ it possible?" They all shake hands with Mrs. Somers in turn. Roberts: "Isn't this rather sudden, Willis?"