Читать книгу Three Bright Girls. A Story of Chance and Mischance онлайн

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"Good gracious!" exclaims Doris aside to Honor, "what can it mean?"

"It is very plain to me what it means," replied Honor. "Didn't you see the music she brought in with her? That music is yours, my dear,—your songs; and mother has sent for Molly to play the accompaniments. So now you can't escape."

"Well, I really call that mean of mother!" exclaims Doris. "Molly, why weren't you in bed and asleep, you wretched child, like any other reasonable being? then you couldn't have come down, you know."

"Mother sent me a message not long ago," replies Molly promptly, "to say I was to get dressed and to look out some of your nicest songs, and come down when I was sent for. So of course I was arrayed in my white frock, with more speed than elegance, I'm afraid, for my sash is all awry, and I can't reach round to do it for myself; and," she adds, lowering her voice mysteriously, "I have actually come down in odd shoes. Look!" holding out first one foot and then the other. "One rosette is nearly twice as large as the other, and I verily believe one shoe is kid and the other patent leather! It is—look! Then it is your shoe I caught up, Honor, and that accounts for it pinching so horribly; why will you persist in having such small feet? Well, I must take care not to show both feet at once, and then it will be all right—they're both nice shoes of their kind."