'Oh, I don't care about that. I think it is stupid,' said Madge at once. 'There is no use having any pretence about it. And I don't know in the world what to write about. Look,—I have begun about the Kenyons' invitation, and asked him whether he'd mind my going. I like those little dances better than the big balls——'
She held out the letter she had begun. But Nan would not even look at it.
'It isn't usual, is it, Madge,' she said, hurriedly, 'for a girl who is engaged to go out to a dance by herself?'
'But we are all going!'
'You know what I mean. It is a compliment you should pay him not to go.'
'Well,' said Madge somewhat defiantly, 'I don't know about that. One does as one is done by. And I don't think he'd care if I went and danced the whole night through—even with Jack Hanbury.'
'Oh, how can you say such a thing!' said her sister, staring at her; for this was a new development altogether.
But Madge was not to be put down.
'Oh, I am not such a fool. I can see well enough. There isn't much romance about the whole affair; and that's the short and the long of it. Of course it's a very good arrangement for both of us, I believe; and that's what they say now-a-days—marriages are "arranged."'
'I don't know what you mean Madge! You never spoke like that before.'