enjoyed their visit at Prince's Gate; they had never been at anything
so "grown-up," nor seen so many smart bonnets and brilliant
complexions. Moreover they were considered with interest, quite as
if, being minor elements, yet perceptible ones, of Mrs. Churchley's
new life, they had been described in advance and were the heroines of
the occasion. There were so many ladies present that this personage
didn't talk to them much; she only called them her "chicks" and asked
them to hand about tea-cups and bread and butter. All of which was
highly agreeable and indeed intensely exciting to Beatrice and
Muriel, who had little round red spots in THEIR cheeks when they came
away. Adela quivered with the sense that her mother's children were
now Mrs. Churchley's "chicks" and a part of the furniture of Mrs.
Churchley's dreadful consciousness.

It was one thing to have made up her mind, however; it was another
thing to make her attempt. It was when she learned from Godfrey that
the day was fixed, the 20th of July, only six weeks removed, that she
felt the importance of prompt action. She learned everything from
Godfrey now, having decided it would be hypocrisy to question her
father. Even her silence was hypocritical, but she couldn't weep and
wail. Her father showed extreme tact; taking no notice of her
detachment, treating it as a moment of bouderie he was bound to allow
her and that would pout itself away. She debated much as to whether
she should take Godfrey into her confidence; she would have done so
without hesitation if he hadn't disappointed her. He was so little
what she might have expected, and so perversely preoccupied that she
could explain it only by the high pressure at which he was living,
his anxiety about his "exam." He was in a fidget, in a fever,
putting on a spurt to come in first; sceptical moreover about his
success and cynical about everything else. He appeared to agree to