“Drink that,” he ordered.
She shook her head.
“I'm not sick,” she said. “I'm only a fool.”
“If that fellow said anything over the telephone--!”
She looked up drearily.
“It wasn't him. He doesn't matter. It's just--I got to hating myself.”
She stood up and carefully dabbed her eyes. “Heavens, I must be a sight.
Now don't you get to thinking things, Mr. Cameron. Girls can't go out
and fight off a temper, or get full and sleep it off. So they cry.”
Some time later he glanced out at her. She was standing before the
little mirror above the chewing gum, carefully rubbing her cheeks with a
small red pad. After that she reached into the show case, got out a lip
pencil and touched her lips.
“You're pretty enough without all that, Miss Edith.”
“You mind your own business,” she retorted acidly.
CHAPTER VIII
Lily had known Alston Denslow most of her life. The children of that
group of families which formed the monied aristocracy of the city
knew only their own small circle. They met at dancing classes, where
governesses and occasionally mothers sat around the walls, while the
little girls, in handmade white frocks of exquisite simplicity, their
shining hair drawn back and held by ribbon bows, made their prim little
dip at the door before entering, and the boys, in white Eton collars and
gleaming pumps, bowed from the waist and then dived for the masculine
corner of the long room.
No little girl ever intruded on that corner, although now and then a
brave spirit among the boys would wander, with assumed unconsciousness
but ears rather pink, to the opposite corner where the little girls were
grouped like white butterflies milling in the sun.
The pianist struck a chord, and the children lined up, the girls on one
side, the boys on the other, a long line, with Mrs. Van Buren in the
center. Another chord, rather a long one. Mrs. Van Buren curtsied to
the girls. The line dipped, wavered, recovered itself. Mrs. Van Buren
turned. Another chord. The boys bent, rather too much, from the waist,
while Mrs. Van Buren swept another deep curtsey. The music now, very
definite as to time. Glide and short step to the right. Glide and short
step to the left. Dancing school had commenced. Outside were long lines
of motors waiting. The governesses chatted, and sometimes embroidered.
Mademoiselle tatted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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