"
"What on earth is she talking about?" queried Edward inaudibly. He
could form no idea, but he was suddenly extricated from his dilemma by
observing the antics of two pet kittens on the hearth-rug.
"Altogether too frisky," he acquiesced, "but charming little pets."
"It appears to me," said the lady, with a good deal of frigidity in
her manner, "that they should be something better than that."
"Oh, you could scarcely expect such young things to be stately and
dignified, Madame DeBerczy. They seem to me very pretty and graceful."
"In my day prettiness and grace were not considered so essential for
young ladies as dignity and stateliness."
"Young ladies! Really, I beg your pardon, dear Madame, for my
inattention. I imagined you were talking of kittens." He blushed so
vividly over his mistake that a more circumspect old lady even than
the one he was addressing would have found it hard not to forgive him.
But now the girls re-entered the room with looks of deep dejection.
"We have decided that we can't part," said Helene. "United we stand,
divided we fall."
"And so," said Rose boldly, addressing Madame DeBerczy, "we have come
to ask if Helene cannot go back with us for a few days.
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