'
'Has Fly got it, mamma?' said Valetta. 'She seemed like one of
ourselves.'
'Oh, yes,' put in Dolores. 'It was what made me think her stuck up. I
should have known her for a swell anywhere.'
'I'm sure Fly has no airs!' exclaimed Val, hotly, and Gillian was ready
to second her; but Lady Merrifield explained. 'The absence of airs is
one ingredient, Val, both in being ladylike, and in the distinction in
which the maid justly perceived our Mouse to be deficient. Come, you
foolish girls, don't look concerned. Nobody but the maid would have
ever let Mysie perceive the difference.'
Mysie coloured and answered, 'I don't know; I saw the Fitzhughs look at
me at first as if they did not think I belonged, and Ivinghoe was
always so awfully polite that I thought he was laughing at me.'
'Ivinghoe must be horrid,' broke out Valetta.
'The Fitzhughs said they would knock it out of him at Eton,' returned
Mysie. 'They got very nice after the first day, and said Fly and I
were twice as jolly fellows as he was.'
It further appeared that Mysie had had plenty of partners at the ball,
and on all occasions her full share of notice, the country neighbours
welcoming her as her mother's daughter, but most of them saying she was
far more like her Aunt Phyllis than her own mother. The dancing and
excitement so late at night had, however, tired her overmuch, she had
cramp all the remainder of the night, could eat no breakfast the next
day, and was quite miserable.
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