“My dear,” remonstrated her father, “Catalina is a most well-conducted young woman. She has not given me a moment of anxiety, and I think her suggestion a really opportune one, for it will enable us to see Spain and give me much valuable literary material. Of course, I do not like the idea of travelling third class myself, and I only wish I could afford to take you all in the train de luxe.” “You are a perfect dear,” announced Lydia, “and give us everything we want. And if we went in the luxe we couldn’t see any nice little out-of-the-way places and would soon become blasé, which would be dreadful. Jane at first enjoyed it as much as we did, and I could go on forever. No one need ever know that we went third, and when we are at home we will have something else to talk about except the ever-lasting Italy and England and Paris. Do consent, mother.” This was an unusual concession, and Mrs. Moulton was a trifle mollified. Besides, if her favorite child’s heart was set upon Spain, that dyed the matter with a different complexion; she could defer her subjection of the Californian, and, tired as she was, she was by no means averse to seeing Spain herself. Nevertheless, she rose with dignity and gathered her cape about her. “You and your father will settle the matter to suit yourselves,” she said, with that access of politeness in which the down-trodden manifest their sense of injury. “But I have no hesitation in saying that I never before heard a gentlewoman”—she had the true middle-class horror of the word “lady”—“express a desire to travel third, and I think it will be a most unbecoming performance. Moreover, I doubt if anything can make us comfortable; we are reasonably sure to become infested with vermin and be made ill by the smell of garlic. I have had my say, however, and shall now go and lie down.” As she moved up the path, her step measured, her spine protestant, her husband ran after and drew her arm through his. He nodded over his shoulder to his youngest daughter, and Lydia, deprecating further argument, went swiftly off in search of Catalina. II