"Oh, but it does;—just the same as for me. I don't see why you are not to be just as nice as myself."
"That's not true, my dear."
"Why not true? There is quite as much depends on your good fortune as on mine. And then you are so much the cleverer of the two."
Then when the day for the ball drew near, there came to be some more serious conversation between them.
"Ada, love, you mean to enjoy yourself, don't you?"
"If I can I will. When I go to these things I never know whether they will lead to enjoyment or the reverse. Some little thing happens so often, and everything seems to go wrong."
"They shouldn't go wrong with you, my pet."
"Why not with me as well as with others?"
"Because you are so beautiful to look at. You are made to be queen of a ball-room; not a London ball-room, where everything, I take it, is flash and faded, painted and stale, and worn out; but down here in the country, where there is some life among us, and where a girl may be supposed to be excited over her dancing. It is in such rooms as this that hearts are won and lost; a bid made for diamonds is all that is done in London."
"I never was at a London ball," said Ada.