Privately, she took a great interest in the rich Brownes, and envied them not a little. Their grand house and beautiful grounds, their army of [166] ]well-trained servants, their splendid carriages and horses, and their heaps of dresses and jewellery seemed to the half-grown girl the most desirable things on earth.
But if you had put it to the test whether she would change Esther’s beautiful, quiet grace of manner for Mrs. Browne’s nervous fussiness; her soldierly, upright father for little, mean-looking Mr. Browne; handsome, careless Pip, who looked like a king in his flannels and old cricket cap, for Mr. Theodore Fitzroy-Browne of the careful toilets and bold eyes; or sweet, gracious Meg, who always said the right thing at the right time, for one of the over-dressed, gushing Miss Brownes, I think—even with all the money thrown in—she would have clung to Misrule.
For their part, the Brownes took a great interest in the Woolcot family, and felt themselves much aggrieved that, with all their shabbiness, they had been too “stuck-up” to call upon them.
They would have liked Pip for their “At Homes” and dances; and the young, grave-faced doctor, who was always turning in at the Misrule gate; Meg, who looked “such a lady”; and Nellie, whose beautiful face would be so great an attraction to—at any rate—the masculine portion of their guests.
[167]
]When, after some five or six months, no cards from Captain, Mrs., and Miss Woolcot had been deposited at the shrine of their wealth, they began to make overtures themselves.
“[MEG AND NELLIE HAD BEEN HELPING TO DECORATE THE CHURCH ONE AFTERNOON.]”
[Meg and Nellie] had been helping to decorate the church one afternoon,—it was Easter-time,—when two of the Misses Browne came in, followed by a man in livery, bearing a great basket of exquisite white roses, and kosmea. Mrs. Macintosh, the clergyman’s wife, introduced the girls to each other, since they were so close, and they hammered their fingers and exchanged civilities together for the next hour.
[168]
]Miss Browne at the end of that time wanted to know if they were not passionately fond of tennis.
“Oh yes—very,” said Nellie. “We love it!”