A path , bordered by big white clam shells , led through it to the front door , whose steps were slabs of smooth red sandstone from the beach . `` No children here , certainly , '' whispered Ida . `` Every one of those clam shells is placed just so . And this walk is swept every day . No , we shall never dare to ask for anything to eat here . They would be afraid of our scattering crumbs . '' Ida lifted her hand to knock , but before she could do so , the door was thrown open and a breathless little lady appeared on the threshold . She was very small , with an eager , delicately featured face and dark eyes twinkling behind gold-rimmed glasses . She was dressed immaculately in an old-fashioned gown of grey silk with a white muslin fichu crossed over her shoulders , and her silvery hair fell on each side of her face in long , smooth curls that just touched her shoulders and bobbed and fluttered with her every motion ; behind , it was caught up in a knot on her head and surmounted by a tiny lace cap . She looks as if she had just stepped out of a bandbox of last century , thought Mary . `` Are you Cousin Abner 's girls ? '' demanded the little lady eagerly . There was such excitement and expectation in her face and voice that both the Seymour girls felt uncomfortably that they ought to be `` Cousin Abner 's girls . '' `` No , '' said Mary reluctantly , `` we 're not . We are only -- Martin Seymour 's girls . '' All the light went out of the little lady 's face , as if some illuminating lamp had suddenly been quenched behind it . She seemed fairly to droop under her disappointment . As for the rest , the name of Martin Seymour evidently conveyed no especial meaning to her ears . How could she know that he was a multi-millionaire who was popularly supposed to breakfast on railroads and lunch on small corporations , and that his daughters were girls whom all people delighted to honour ? `` No , of course you are not Cousin Abner 's girls , '' she said sorrowfully .
`` I 'd have known you could n't be if I had just stopped XXXXX think .
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