Manners, with whom they
lived. As they were orphans without money, if the Manners, who were
rather well off, had not taken them in, they would have had to go to the
workhouse, or into genteel amateur shops, as they were not clever enough
for governesses.
Mary, with her turned-up nose, looked just about as usual, but Jane had
a new frock on which was exactly the colour of the big, appealing eyes,
with their trick of following people about. She looked a little pale and
pathetic, which somehow gave her a specious air of being pretty, which
she really was not at all. The swaying young thinness of those very
slight girls whose soft summer muslins make them look like delicate
bags tied in the middle with fluttering ribbons, has almost invariably
a foolish attraction for burly young men whose characters are chiefly
marked by lack of forethought, and Lady Alanby saw Tommy's robust young
body give a sort of jerk as the party of three was brought across the
grass. After it he pulled himself together hastily, and looked stiff
and pink, shaking hands as if his elbow joint was out of order, being at
once too loose and too rigid. He began to be clumsy with the bread and
butter, and, ceasing his talk with Miss Vanderpoel, fell into silence.
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