She found those two persons waiting for her, while they straightened out the fingers of their long gloves.
"Well, girls," began Nan, seating herself lazily upon the middle of the bed, "there is just one solitary comfort left after an utterly stupid evening like this: you can express your feelings to your dearest friends, and here I am to express!"
"Go on, then," sighed her sister, ruefully examining a stain on her fan; "but don't speak too loud or you will waken the household."
"Oh, you needn't be afraid, Evelyn; I'm not in one of my fire-cracker moods. No, I'm cool; I have the calmness of stern resolve; I speak from that tranquil height which lies beyond emotion!" declaimed Nan, pulling out the hairpins from her artistic coils.
"What notion have you in your busy head now? Hasten to divulge, for it is very late," suggested Cathy.
"Late! who cares? I shall save years of sleep by wasting this midnight's gas!" and Nan showed a gleam of fire in her eye as she gave the pillow a vindictive thump.
"Well," yawned Cathy, "proceed at once"; and forthwith the audience curled itself up on the lounge, regarding the speaker with expectant amusement, while she, after finishing off an intricate pattern in hairpins, thus began:
"Ahem--ladies--the subject of society in general and parties in particular, ladies and gentlemen," waving her hand toward sundry photographs standing about on Evelyn's writing-desk, "has been under consideration for some time. _Ergo_, _I_ don't go to another one! So there! That's settled. From this time forth I shall proceed to enjoy life in a rational way."
With this conclusion to her rapid speech, she scattered her design over the bedspread with one destructive finger, and flashed upon her hearers two bright, snapping eyes, showing that she was in earnest, despite her nonsense.
"Why, Nan, what happened? Didn't you have a gay time?"
This remark set Nan off, like a match to powder.
"_Gay?_ Oh, bewilderingly, intensely gay! Yes, it was just that--'gay,' and nothing more. The party was all right, indeed better than most, from a high moral point of view, for my hair staid in curl and my gloves didn't burst; I danced with the most stylish goose in the room; I ate an ice with conceited Tom Lefferts in the conservatory; I opened and shut my fan and smiled and raised my eyebrows the requisite number of times to produce the effect of having a delightful time! Oh--