“That’s it! Why don’t they read it and find out?” cried Octavia. “Two or three said, you know, that it was the wrong time of year for them. Bathsheba, I almost think they didn’t like our appearance!”—this slowly, as if it were not a new thought.
“Do you think that we may possibly look Palmyran? Nowadays the fashions travel everywhere, and I am sure Miss Jobyns has the latest styles.”
“Perhaps it would have been better if you had sent the manuscript,” I said dubiously. “We took their time, anyway, and that may have made them unfavorably disposed toward the book. But it is going to be read, and when they’ve read it, I’m sure they’ll want to publish it!”
Octavia took a swallow of tea that seemed to choke her, and set down the cup.
“I don’t think that any one will ever publish it. I have put a whole year of time and all of myself into it, and it is a dreary, miserable failure!” she said.
She drank her tea chokingly, but she would not eat. I had never seen Octavia’s self-control so overthrown.
As we passed into the street I caught sight of a familiar head with sleek black braids. It turned toward me suddenly, and there was Alice Yorke’s piquant, fascinating face. I glanced eagerly at her companion. It was not Estelle; but a very striking girl, whose costume was either eccentric or artistic, I could not, from my Palmyran point of view, be quite sure which. My impression was only a momentary one, for Alice Yorke immediately seized upon us.
“Oh, I am so glad to see you! It seems like a special providence!” she cried. “Estelle is with me, you know. She is at my friend’s studio. My friend, Miss Carruthers,” she interpolated, introducing the striking young lady, whose laughing gray eyes and slightly turned-up nose were winning, but vaguely incongruous with her carriage and her toilet.
“And Estelle is—oh, in such a state! You must come to her at once. She has fainted and has had hysterics. And she has always been so strong and self-restrained!”
“Those self-restrained people, when they do give way!” her friend remarked, sagely.