Now a heroine
may have the largest, deepest, and most heavily lashed eyes
imaginable; she may have hair in very truth like the gold "mown
from a harvest's middle floor"; she may have lips like cherries
and teeth like pearls, and a red nose will be so utterly fatal
that all these other charms will pass unnoticed. It cost Meg real
anguish of spirit. She carefully read all the Answers to Correspondents
in the various papers Aldith lent her in search of a remedy, but
nearly everyone seemed to be asking for recipes to promote the
growth of the eyelashes or to prevent _embonpoint_. Not one she
chanced on said, "A red nose in a girl is generally caused by
indigestion or tight-lacing." She asked Aldith to suggest something,
and that young person thought that vaseline and sulphur mixed
together, and spread over the afflicted member, would have the
desired effect. So every night Meg fastened her bedroom door
with a wedge of wood, keys being unknown luxuries at Misrule,
and anointed her, poor little nose most carefully with the
greasy mixture, lying all night on her back to prevent it
rubbing off on the pillow.
Once Pip had forced his way into demand a few stitches for his
braces which had split, and she had been compelled to wrap her
whole face hastily up in a towel and declare she had violent
neuralgia, and he must go to Esther or one of the servants.
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