What a day that was, Marie! When one thinks
of it all,--of all the perils and all the salvations, how strange
it is! I wonder whether you would have liked it now if you were the
Dowager Duchess."
"I should have had some enjoyment, I suppose."
"I don't know that it would have done us any harm, and yet how keen I
was about it. We can't give you the rank now, and you won't take the
money."
"Not the money, certainly."
"Plantagenet says you'll have to take it;--but it seems to me he's
always wrong. There are so many things that one must do that one
doesn't do. He never perceives that everything gets changed every
five years. So Mr. Finn is the favourite again?"
"He is a friend whom I like. I may be allowed to have a friend, I
suppose."
"A dozen, my dear;--and all of them good-looking. Good-bye, dear.
Pray come to us. Don't stand off and make yourself disagreeable.
We shan't be giving dinner parties, but you can come whenever you
please. Tell me at once;--do you mean to be disagreeable?"
Then Madame Goesler was obliged to promise that she would not be more
disagreeable than her nature had made her.
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