" Aldith put her arm more tightly round
her friend.
"Wouldn't it be HEAVENLY, Marguerite, to be engaged--you and I?"
she said, in a tone of dreamy rapture. "To have a dark,
handsome man with proud black eyes just dying with love for you,
going down on his knees, and giving you presents, and taking you
out and all--oh, Marguerite, just think of it!"
Melt's eyes looked wistful. "We're not old enough, though, yet,"
she said with a sigh.
Aldith tossed her head. "That's nonsense; why, Clara Allison is
only seventeen, and look at your own stepmother. Plenty of girls
are actually married at sixteen, Marguerite, and a man proposed
my sister Beatrice when she was only fifteen." Meg looked
impressed and thoughtful.
Then Aldith rose to go. "Mind you're in time for the boat
to-morrow," she said, as they reached the gate; "and, Marguerite,
be sure you make yourself look very nice--wear your cornflower
dress, and see if Mrs. Woolcot will lend you a pair of her gloves,
your grey ones are just a little shabby, aren't they, dear?"
"H'm," said Meg, colouring.
"And Mr. James Graham always comes back on that boat, and the two
Courtney boys--Andrew Courtney told Beatrice he thought you seemed
a nice little thing; he often notices you, he says, because you
blush so.
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