If Dick had said he wanted to go and her father
had seconded his wishes, she would have insisted on staying at home. It
was no great matter, her father said to himself, after all; very likely
it would amuse her; the Widow was a lively woman enough,--perhaps a
little comme il ne faut pas socially, compared with the Thorntons and
some other families; but what did he care for these petty village
distinctions?
Elsie spoke.
"I mean to go. You must go with me, Dudley. You may do as you like,
Dick."
That settled the Dudley-mansion business, of course. They all three
accepted, as fortunately did all the others who had been invited.
Hyacinth Cottage was a pretty place enough, a little too much choked
round with bushes, and too much overrun with climbing-roses, which, in
the season of slugs and rose-bugs, were apt to show so brown about the
leaves and so coleopterous about the flowers, that it might be questioned
whether their buds and blossoms made up for these unpleasant animal
combinations,--especially as the smell of whale-oil soap was very
commonly in the ascendant over that of the roses.
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