get one into real society if one is to have it; Lady Rotherwood, Lady
Caergwent, besides all your delightful artist friends; and that would
pacify mother, and make it so much pleasanter for me. Oh, if you
knew what the evenings are!"

"What an inducement!"

"It would not be so if Annie were there. We should go out, and miss
the horrid aldermanic kind of dinners; and at home, when we had
played the two old dears to sleep, as I have to do every night, while
they nod over their piquet or backgammon, we could have some fun
together! Now, Annie, you would like it. You do care for good
society, now don't you?"

"I did enjoy it very much when Aunt Cherry went with me, but—-"

"No buts, no buts. You would come to the laundry girls, and the
cooking-class, and all the rest with me, and we should not have a
dreary moment. Have you done fiddling over those flowers?"

"Not yet; Vale Leston flowers, you know. Besides, Aunt Cherry can't
bear them not artistic."

"Tidy is enough for Marilda. She does them herself, or the
housekeeper; I can't waste time worrying over them."

"That's the reason they always look like a gardener's prize bouquet
at a country horticultural show," said Gerald.

"What does it signify? They are only a testimony to Sir Gorgias