Opposite to them the lighthouse at the north end of Blackwell's Island glowed like a hot coal.

Then a great steamer obscured it.
"Isn't this nice ?" Mrs.Wayne asked, and he saw that she wanted her discovery praised.

He never lost the impression that she enjoyed being praised.
Such a spot, within sight of half a dozen historic sites, was a temptation to Mr.Lanley, and he would have unresistingly yielded to it if Mrs.Wayne had not said: "But we haven't said a word yet about our children." "True," answered Mr.Lanley.His heart sank.

It is not easy, he thought, to explain to a person for whom you have just conceived a liking that her son had aspired above his station.

He tapped his long, middle finger on the steering-wheel, just as at directors' meetings he tapped the table before he spoke, and began, "In a society somewhat artificially formed as ours is, Mrs.Wayne, it has always been my experience that--" Do what he would, it kept turning into a speech, and the essence of the speech was that while democracy did very well for men, a strictly aristocratic system was the only thing possible for girls--one's own girls, of course.