Mrs. Day's Daughters by Mary E. Mann
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page 16 of 360 (04%)
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"Tell Bessie not to be an ass then; and come to bed."
She went to bed; and, spite of her disturbing thoughts of Bessie and her love affair, went to sleep. "Oh, dear!" she said as she lay down. "What a lot of bother there'll be for the servants, getting the house straight, tomorrow; and they so late to bed! The drawing-room carpet to put down again, and all the furniture to move into place. And it only seems the other day since we went through the same thing on last New Year's Eve." "Turning the house upside down is what women like. It's what they're made for." "I wonder how many more dances we shall have to give before both the girls are married, and off our hands! I'm sure I shall never take the trouble to give one for the boys." "Shan't you, indeed!" "Why do you speak like that, William? I don't know that I have said anything for you to jeer at." "Oh, go to sleep! And let's hope you won't have any worse troubles than the laying down or taking up of a carpet." The old servant Emily, who had lived with the Days since their marriage, and was as much friend as servant to her mistress and the young people, had once, in speaking of her master, made the memorable pronouncement that he was "Apples abroad and crabs at home." This speech, being interpreted, |
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