“Oh, well, I’m sure I wish I were dead,” wailed Mellicent promptly. “Nothing but fusses and bothers, and just when I thought I was going to be so happy! If I’d had white shoes, this would never have happened. Always the same thing! When you look forward to a treat, everything is as piggy and nasty as it can be! Wish I’d never come! Wish I’d stayed at home, and let the horrid old party go to Jericho! Rosalind’s crying, Peggy’s cross, you are preaching! This is a nice way to enjoy yourself, I must say!”
Nothing is more hopeless than to reason with a placid person who has lapsed into a fit of ill-temper. The two elder girls realised this, and remained perfectly silent while Mellicent continued to wish for death, to lament the general misery of life, and the bad fortune which attended the wearers of black slippers. So incessant was the stream of her repinings, that it seemed as if it might have gone on for ever, had not a servant entered at last with the information that the guests were beginning to arrive, and that Lady Darcy would be glad to see the young ladies without delay. Esther was anxious to wait and help Peggy with her toilette, but that young lady was still on her dignity and by no means anxious to descend to a scene of gaiety for which she had little heart. She refused the offer, therefore, in Mariquita fashion, and the sisters walked dejectedly along the brightly-lit corridors, Mellicent still continuing her melancholy wail, and Esther reflecting sadly that all was vanity, and devoutly wishing herself back in the peaceful atmosphere of the vicarage.
A RETROSPECT, WITH SOME SURPRISING FIGURES AND A PRESENTATION TO THE EDITOR.
Excuse me if I indulge in a personal reminiscence. It is in every way a pleasant incident to recall:—
Between nineteen and twenty years ago, in the Dark Ages, when as yet there was no GIRL’S OWN PAPER, I remember a quite accidental meeting at luncheon in a London restaurant with the present Editor. We had become well acquainted before that, in connection with a magazine of which he was sub-editor and to which I then played the part of contributor.
[Illustration: THE AUTOGRAPH TEA-TABLE CLOTH.]
I found him full of a scheme he had in view, a paper which he anticipated would be a lasting success, for it was going to appeal to and cater for those sensible girls who are always in fashion and who hitherto had possessed no magazine which they could call their very own.