Doctor Breen's Practice - 1881 Author:William Dean Howells Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: N " Oh, I am so glad to hear it!" replied the other. She looked round, but was unable to form a party. By twos or threes they might have liked to take Mrs. M... more »aynard to pieces ; but no one cares to make unkind remarks before a whole company of people. Some of the ladies even began to say pleasant things about Mr. Libby, as if he were Grace's friend. " I always like to see these fair men when they get tanned," said Mrs. Alger. " Their blue eyes look so very blue. And the backs of their necks — just like my boys !" " Do you admire such a very fighting-clip as Mr. Libby has on ? " asked Mrs. Scott. " It must be nice for summer," returned the elder lady. " Yes, it certainly must," admitted the younger. " Really," said another, " I wish / could go in the fighting-clip. One does n't know what to do with one's hair at the sea-side ; it's always in the way." " Your hair would be a public loss, Mrs. Frost," said Mrs. Alger. The others looked at her hair, as if they had seen it now for the first time. t " Oh, I don't think so," said Mrs. Frost, in a sort of flattered coo. " Oh, don't have it cut off!" pleaded a young girl, coming up and taking the beautiful mane, hangingloose after the bath, into her hand. Mrs. Frost put her arm round the girl's waist, and pulled her down against her shoulder. Upon reflection she also kissed her. Through a superstition, handed down from mother to daughter, that it is uncivil and even unkind not to keep saying something, they went on talking vapidities, where the same number of men, equally vacuous, would have remained silent; and some of them complained that the nervous strain of conversation took away all the good their bath had done them. Miss Gleason, who did not bathe, was also not a talker. She kept a bright-eyed reticence,...« less