Against her husband's wishes and advice, Mrs. J. Bruce-Horton had selected a London school for their daughter, and since Ethel had been placed therein, she had spent a portion of each year in England, accompanied by her bosom friend, Mrs. Lyman Osborn. In many ways these two women were dissimilar, but their very dissimilarity seemed to bind them more closely together. They had both become tinctured with the weakness of title-worship, and perhaps the most cherished wish of Mrs. J. Bruce-Horton was that Ethel should marry into some titled English family.
"I do wonder," she sighed, "if there are any people desirable for one to know stopping at the hotel."
"Very doubtful," lamented Mrs. Osborn. "The fewer Americans we know the better for us when among our friends on the other side."
"Quite true," assented the other, devoutly.
"It is so embarrassing, when one is among one's English friends, to have American acquaintances intruding themselves. Oh, here comes Ethel!" observed Mrs. Horton.
"Oh, mamma!" cried Ethel, as she came running toward them, all out of breath, "our side won."
"Why, Ethel, what have you been doing?" exclaimed her mother, as she held up her hands in amazement.
"I have just finished the jolliest game of tennis I ever played in my life; and my! did n't we do them up!"
"Why, mamma, if you could have seen how we Americans vanquished two rum Englishmen you would have shouted 'Hail Columbia' and 'The Star Spangled Banner' forever!"
"Ethel, Ethel, such language is so unbecoming!"
"I know, mamma, but I am in America once more, and I feel in a 'Hail Columbia' sort of mood. There," said she, "and there," as she stooped and kissed her mother affectionately. "Now don't scold me any more. My, but I am having lots of fun."
Mrs. J. Bruce-Horton adjusted her glasses, which had been displaced by Ethel's impetuous embrace, and inquired, "Did you say that there were some English families stopping at the hotel, Ethel?"
"Yes, mamma, the Countess Berwyn and Lady Somebody--I don't remember her name--and her son and an English friend of his."
"Not such an undesirable place to stop, after all," remarked Mrs. Lyman Osborn.
"No, indeed!" exclaimed Mrs. J. Bruce-Horton. "But really, Ethel, you must be more particular. You must not speak so disrespectfully of our English friends. You know we have so many across the water."