`` Reed -- Abner Abimelech Reed , '' answered Miss Sally promptly . `` A.A. Reed , he signs himself now . He is very well-to-do , I am told , and he carries on business in town . He was a very fine young man , my Cousin Abner . I do n't know his wife . '' Mary and Ida exchanged glances . Beatrice and Helen Reed ! They knew them slightly as the daughters of a new-rich family who were hangers-on of the fashionable society in Trenton . They were regarded as decidedly vulgar , and so far their efforts to gain an entry into the exclusive circle where the Seymours and their like revolved had not been very successful . `` I 'm afraid Miss Sally will wait a long while before she sees Cousin Abner 's girls , '' said Mary , when they had gone back to the parlour and Miss Sally had excused herself to superintend the washing of Grandmother Temple 's wedding china . `` They probably look on her as a poor relation to be ignored altogether ; whereas , if they were only like her , Trenton society would have made a place for them long ago . '' The Seymour girls enjoyed that visit as much as Miss Sally did . She was eager to hear all about their girlish lives and amusements . They told her of their travels , of famous men and women they had seen , of parties they had attended , the dresses they wore , the little fads and hobbies of their set -- all jumbled up together and all listened to eagerly by Miss Sally and also by Juliana , who was permitted to sit on the stairs out in the hall and so gather in the crumbs of this intellectual feast . `` Oh , you 've been such pleasant company , '' said Miss Sally when the girls went away . Mary took the little lady 's hands in hers and looked affectionately down into her face . `` Would you like it -- you and Juliana -- if we came out to see you often ? And perhaps brought some of our friends with us ? '' `` Oh , if you only would ! '' breathed Miss Sally .
XXXXX laughed and , obeying a sudden impulse , bent and kissed Miss Sally 's cheek .
Abner Beatrice Ida Mary Reed Sally Seymours Trenton crumbs parlour