Lapham and Penelope, and then,
after some lingering commonplaces, got herself out of
the house.
Penelope and her mother were still looking at each other,
and trying to grapple with the effect or purport of the visit,
when Irene burst in upon them from the outside.
"O mamma! wasn't that Mrs. Corey's carriage just drove away?"
Penelope answered with her laugh. "Yes! You've just missed
the most delightful call, 'Rene. So easy and pleasant
every way. Not a bit stiff! Mrs. Corey was so friendly!
She didn't make one feel at all as if she'd bought me,
and thought she'd given too much; and mother held up
her head as if she were all wool and a yard wide,
and she would just like to have anybody deny it."
In a few touches of mimicry she dashed off a sketch
of the scene: her mother's trepidation, and Mrs. Corey's
well-bred repose and polite scrutiny of them both.
She ended by showing how she herself had sat huddled up
in a dark corner, mute with fear.
"If she came to make us say and do the wrong thing,
she must have gone away happy; and it's a pity you weren't
here to help, Irene. I don't know that I aimed to make
a bad impression, but I guess I succeeded--even beyond
my deserts." She laughed; then suddenly she flashed out
in fierce earnest. "If I missed doing anything that could
make me as hateful to her as she made herself to me----"
She checked herself, and began to laugh.
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