"Oh, pardon me," and Jack assumed an affected manner. "Of course, Ida's hair is not really red--not merely--carroty is the very word needed. Well, she is the daughter of the Reverend Mrs. Giles. Don't you remember the woman who always scolded us for everything? Wouldn't let us even so much as take a turnip. And she wore such pious-looking spectacles that we dubbed her Reverend Mrs. Giles. Well, she still is Ida's mother." "Then I don't blame Ida a bit. I'd be Ida myself if I was brought up as she's been, though I suppose her mother means all right. It's curious what queer manners some people have. But I dare say we all have our own faults." "And, with all of them, I hope the girls love us still--even Ida," added Jack quickly. "Now, those others--the beautiful Robinson twins," pursued Ed. "Oh, yes. Well, Bess and Belle are certainly the real thing in girls--right up to the minute. Besides, they have an immensely rich papa. You've heard of him--Perry Robinson, the railroad king?" "Oh, yes. And their mother, if one may be permitted to ask?" "Certainly, fair sir--Their mother is a wonderfully handsome woman, in a statuesque sort of way. Very dignified, and all that. Now, the twins are worth while." "Exactly so," answered Ed. "Now I think--" He stopped suddenly, and quickly jerked up his rod, but not quite speedily enough, for he had the pleasure of seeing a fish slip wrigglingly off the hook. "Biggest one to-day," he murmured as he adjusted some fresh bait. "Now, as to the Robinson twins. The only fault I have to find with them, from my limited acquaintance, is that they are not evenly divided. Bess is--er--well, not to be too delicate about it--too fat--" "No, no, I beg of you!" exclaimed Jack. "Don't use that word. Say too much adiposed." "Sounds like indisposed," murmured Ed; "but let it go at that. Bess is too much adiposed, and Belle--" "Well?" "She is too un-adiposed, if you like it better. Not to put to fine a point upon it, as Mr. Snagsby used to say--she's too thin." "Not faults in either of them beyond repair," commented Jack. "Cora is very keen about them. Thinks they're the best ever. She is very much interested in them." "How about Jack?" teased Ed. "He might have a perfectly pardonable interest in being Interested in the twins--solely on his sister's account, however--solely an the part of his sister." "Um!" murmured Jack. "That's neither here nor there. To carry it a little further, and still discussing the twins, there is Ed Foster, who is always at college when he is not fishing. He has money to burn, and so he's going to set fire to some of it by entrusting it to the New City Bank.