A modern trio in an old town

“Didn’t exaggerate, did I?” he went on (page 227)
BY KATHARINE HAVILAND TAYLOR
Author of “Real Stuff,” “Natalie Page,” “Barbara of Baltimore,” etc.
ILLUSTRATED BY MORGAN DENNIS
NEW YORK HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC.
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. BY THE QUINN & BODEN COMPANY RAHWAY, N. J.
TO BONNIE BELL GUERNSEY AND JESSIE ELIZABETH GUERNSEY WITH A VERY GREAT DEAL OF MY LOVE
As I look back through my experience of eighteen years, I realize that many of my apprehensions have been foolish, because so many of the things that I dreaded turned out all right. Almost every one of the parties I thought would be stiff—and I am not very happy at the sort!—proved to be the kind where every one grew lively. I remember one that Elaine McDonald had, particularly, because I had said to mother, “I don’t want to go. They’ll all wear gloves and it will be miserable !” But I did go, and they had a Paul Jones that was so rough that they broke a chair and knocked over a table, and it was fine ! While, on the other hand, there have been parties that I thought would be nice and informal, and we just went and sat in one place and talked, and at that sort I smile until my face feels as if it were covered with shellac, because I don’t feel like smiling at all. And this all shows—or it should, because I am trying to make it—that I never should take my apprehensions seriously. But—I seem to have to, and I always do, and so I felt as if I had real reason for misery, when Mrs. Hamilton, who had looked after me as I crossed the Atlantic upon the Steamship Carpatia , called me back into the stateroom and said, “By the way, child, I am not going to Florence, after all—”
Well, I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, which is what I often do while waiting.
“But,” she went on, as she fussed with the little jars that contribute quite a lot toward her beauty, “I shall hunt up some one who is, and see that you are looked after.”