"
The Ladies Jane and Mary Lithcom, who had been ordered about by her from
their infancy, obeyed with polite smiles. They were not particularly
pretty girls, and were of the indigent noble. Jane, who had almost
overlarge blue eyes, sighed as she reseated herself a few chairs lower
down.
"It does seem beastly unfair," she said in a low voice to her sister,
"that a girl such as that should be so awfully good-looking. She ought
to have a turned-up nose."
"Thank you," said Mary, "I have a turned-up nose myself, and I've got
nothing to balance it."
"Oh, I didn't mean a nice turned-up nose like yours," said Jane; "I
meant an ugly one. Of course Lady Alanby wants her for Tommy." And her
manner was not resigned.
"What she, or anyone else for that matter," disdainfully, "could want
with Tommy, I don't know," replied Mary.
"I do," answered Jane obstinately. "I played cricket with him when I
was eight, and I've liked him ever since. It is AWFUL," in a smothered
outburst, "what girls like us have to suffer."
Lady Mary turned to look at her curiously.
"Jane," she said, "are you SUFFERING about Tommy?"
"Yes, I am. Oh, what a question to ask in a ballroom! Do you want me to
burst out crying?"
"No," sharply, "look at the Prince.
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