"How ugly our bridesmaids' frocks were too," said Jessica reminiscently. "You know it's funny how unlike us Marjorie is; you and I always laugh at the same things, and take the same things seriously, and we look alike too, but Marjorie is hopelessly different; so very homespun somehow." "You're not quite homespun enough you know; I often wonder how you'll stay the course." "Oh Drusilla, don't be so sinister I implore you, or I'll go all weepy like Marjorie. Besides I'm not half so trivial and erratic as you think. I'm pretty solid really; it's only when I think of Hugh I feel like a gas-filled balloon." "This is a ghastly thing," said Drusilla inconsequently lifting up a heavy silver cake stand and turning it about to see if there was any angle at which it could be considered anything but ugly. "Yes, isn't it atrocious. But at least it's silver. Just think of the Blakes giving us that awful electro-plate tea-pot when they are as rich as Crœsus too. I think it's pretty stingy of them, and it's a hideous shape too." "Well they don't like you, you know," said Drusilla calmly, "They think you're aggressively modern and probably rather fast, so really it was very good of them to give you anything." "I don't see that at all. They only did give it me because they like Mother and Daddy; it was nothing to do with me at all. Drusilla, isn't it funny how people show off with wedding presents? That huge china jar from the Carters I mean, obviously chosen for its bulk, and I'd simply have loved it if it had been so small you could hardly see it; about as big as a thimble perhaps." Jessica wandered down the long table, touching the silver objects carelessly, but gently stroking the china. Drusilla, who was draping a Spanish shawl more elegantly over a screen, looked up and laughed at her. "You really are impossible," she said, "How could you want a jar the size of a thimble. That one will be useful for umbrellas too." Jessica clasped her hands passionately. "I know," she said, "I know one must have umbrellas, and things must be big, but I'd like to be a dwarf and live in an exquisite little Japanese garden. Small things are so very rare." "Not really," Drusilla disagreed, "they're often very mean and cunning." "How vile you are to disagree with me to-day," said Jessica happily. "Oh, Drusilla, just look at this! Four sets of coffee cups all cheek by jowl! How shockingly tactless! All the people who gave me coffee cups will have their feelings terribly hurt, and wish they had given me mustard pots instead. I must rearrange them. One here and one there wouldn't be so noticeable." Drusilla picked up a small jeweller's box and looked at the long string of jade curled round on the white velvet lining. "A gorgeous present," she commented, "Jade is lovely stuff, and it suits you too. Really I think it very decent of old Mrs. Hugh to give you a personal present like that."