'NOW, Miss Grey,' exclaimed Miss Murray, immediately I entered the schoolroom, after having taken off my outdoor garments, upon returning from my four weeks' recreation, 'Now - shut the door, and sit down, and I'll tell you all about the ball.'
'No - damn it, no!' shouted Miss Matilda. 'Hold your tongue, can't ye? and let me tell her about my new mare - SUCH a splendour, Miss Grey! a fine blood mare - '
'Do be quiet, Matilda; and let me tell my news first.'
'No, no, Rosalie; you'll be such a damned long time over it - she shall hear me first - I'll be hanged if she doesn't!'
'I'm sorry to hear, Miss Matilda, that you've not got rid of that shocking habit yet.'
'Well, I can't help it: but I'll never say a wicked word again, if you'll only listen to me, and tell Rosalie to hold her confounded tongue.'
Rosalie remonstrated, and I thought I should have been torn in pieces between them; but Miss Matilda having the loudest voice, her sister at length gave in, and suffered her to tell her story first:
so I was doomed to hear a long account of her splendid mare, its breeding and pedigree, its paces, its action, its spirit, &c., and of her own amazing skill and courage in riding it; concluding with an assertion that she could clear a five-barred gate 'like winking,' that papa said she might hunt the next time the hounds met, and mamma had ordered a bright scarlet hunting-habit for her.
'Oh, Matilda! what stories you are telling!' exclaimed her sister.
'Well,' answered she, no whit abashed, 'I know I COULD clear a five-barred gate, if I tried, and papa WILL say I may hunt, and mamma WILL order the habit when I ask it.'
'Well, now get along,' replied Miss Murray; 'and do, dear Matilda, try to be a little more lady-like. Miss Grey, I wish you would tell her not to use such shocking words; she will call her horse a mare: it is so inconceivably shocking! and then she uses such dreadful expressions in describing it: she must have learned it from the grooms. It nearly puts me into fits when she begins.'
'I learned it from papa, you ass! and his jolly friends,' said the young lady, vigorously cracking a hunting-whip, which she habitually carried in her hand. 'I'm as good judge of horseflesh as the best of 'm.'
'Well, now get along, you shocking girl! I really shall take a fit if you go on in such a way. And now, Miss Grey, attend to me;I'm going to tell you about the ball. You must be dying to hear about it, I know. Oh, SUCH a ball! You never saw or heard, or read, or dreamt of anything like it in all your life. The decorations, the entertainment, the supper, the music were indescribable! and then the guests! There were two noblemen, three baronets, and five titled ladies, and other ladies and gentlemen innumerable. The ladies, of course, were of no consequence to me, except to put me in a good humour with myself, by showing how ugly and awkward most of them were; and the best, mamma told me, - the most transcendent beauties among them, were nothing to me. As for me, Miss Grey -I'm so SORRY you didn't see me! I was CHARMING - wasn't I, Matilda?'
'Middling.'
'No, but I really was - at least so mamma said - and Brown and Williamson. Brown said she was sure no gentleman could set eyes on me without falling in love that minute; and so I may be allowed to be a little vain. I know you think me a shocking, conceited, frivolous girl; but then, you know, I don't attribute it ALL to my personal attractions: I give some praise to the hairdresser, and some to my exquisitely lovely dress - you must see it to-morrow -white gauze over pink satin - and so SWEETLY made! and a necklace and bracelet of beautiful, large pearls!'
'I have no doubt you looked very charming: but should that delight you so very much?'
'Oh, no! - not that alone: but, then, I was so much admired; and Imade so MANY conquests in that one night - you'd be astonished to hear - '
'But what good will they do you?'
'What good! Think of any woman asking that!'
'Well, I should think one conquest would be enough; and too much, unless the subjugation were mutual.'
