Somehow my soft answer did not seem to turn away mamma’s wrath.
“Don’t be impertinent, miss! I command you to go into that room and dismiss those men!”
“Certainly, mamma; if you will come with me.”
She wavered, apparently she had just gone through a little passage in which she had been worsted.
“I will come with you, but no nonsense, mind; without any unnecessary words you will dismiss them at once and finally.”
I was just about to open the drawing-room door for mamma to enter, when Audrey came flying down the staircase. It certainly did seem, judging by the very first words she uttered, that she had been listening over the banisters.
“Norah, stop! Mamma, don’t be unreasonable. Let her go!”
Mamma stared. “Let her go! Alone! With those five men! After the way in which they have behaved! Audrey, are you mad?”
“Really, mamma, to hear you talk one would think that none of us had ever been out with gentlemen alone. What harm will they do her? She’ll be as safe with them as she would with you. I’m sure they can be trusted. As the child says, she hasn’t had much fun; let her enjoy the streak that’s come her way. Now, Norah, in you go, and remember what I told you, trample on them for all you’re worth! And have a really good time, my dear! And, mamma, you come upstairs with me.”
She pulled me down to her, and kissed me. We were not a kissing family—most emphatically not among ourselves! And to be kissed by Audrey, at such a moment! It had almost the same effect on me which mine had on Jane; only fortunately I had more sense than she had, and could exercise some self-control.