“He is a little too point device, too obviously got up for the occasion!”
“Too like the best electroplate! No; that is not fair, for it is not pretence, at least, I should think there was sound material below, and that never would brighten instead of dimming it.”
“According to Mysie and Fly, there is plenty of good taste; and his principle is vouched for. Mysie is quite furious at any lady-love having gone to sleep to the sound of original verses from a lover!”
“Dear old Mysie! No, she would not. She has a practical vein in her! Would you?”
“I’m not likely to be tried!” said Gillian merrily. “Catch Ernley either practising or not minding his boat! But come! Mamma will want me, I feel only deputy daughter, with Mysie away.”
The two girls rose from the mossy bank, and proceeded across the paddock to the opening of the glade.
On the turf Lady Merrifield sat enthroned; making a nucleus to the festivities and delicacies of all sorts, from sandwiches and cakes down to strawberries, cherries and Devonshire cream, were displayed before her; and the others drifted up gradually, Miss Mohun first. “I am later than I meant to be,” she said, “but I was delayed by a talk with Sister Beata. I never saw a woman more knocked down than she is by that adventure of Vera’s.”
“I know,” said Magdalen, rousing herself. “It has made her look ten years older, and she could not talk it over or let a word be said to comfort her. She says it was all her fault, and I should have thought it was that silly little Sister Mena’s, if that is her name.
“She considers it her fault for objecting to strict discipline in things of which she did not see the use,” said Jane Mohun, “and so getting absorbed in her own work, and having no fixed rule by which to train Mena.”
“I see,” said Lady Merrifield; “it reminds me of a story told in Madame de Chantal’s life, how, when, par mortification, a Sister quietly ate up a rotten apple without complaint and another made signs of amusement, a rule was made that no one should raise her eyes at meals. It shows that some rules which seem unreasonable may have a foundation.”