‘I could not help it, my dear,’ said Lady Merrifield, ‘without absolutely asking for an invitation for you.’
‘No, mamma; and it is Mysie who is Fly’s friend, being the same age and all. It is quite right, and I understand it.’
‘My dear, I am so glad I can do such a thing as this. If there were small jealousies among you, I could not venture on letting you be set aside, for I know the disappointment was quite as great to you as to Mysie, when we gave it up.’
‘But she was better about it than I,’ said Gillian; ‘mamma, your trusting me in that way is better than a dozen balls. Besides, I know I should hate being there without you; I’m a great old thing, as Jasper says, neither fish nor fowl, you know, not come out, and not a little girl in the schoolroom, and it would be very horrid going to a grand place like that on one’s own account.’
‘That’s right, Gillyflower. ‘Tis very wholesome to discover the sourness of the grapes. And as I think grandmamma is really coming, I shall want you at home, and to look after Dolores.’
‘That’s the worst of it, mamma; I shall never get on with her as Mysie does.’
‘We must do our best, for I do think really the poor child is improving.’
‘Lessons will begin again! That’s one comfort,’ said Gillian, rather quaintly, thinking of the length of time that Dolores would thus be off her hands.
‘And now call Mysie. I must speak to her.’
As for Mysie, she was in a state of rapture. She knew her bliss before her mother had communicated it, for Lord Rotherwood could not refrain from telling his daughter that consent was gained, and Fly darted headlong to embrace Mysie, dance round her and rejoice. The boys declared that Mysie at once sprang into the air like a chamois, and that her head touched the ceiling, but this is believed to be a figment of Jasper’s.