‘I think the pigs would get in,’ said
Katie.
’It would be much easier, and more important
too, to keep their minds nicely,’ said Ugolina;
and there the pigs could never get in.’
‘No; I suppose not,’ said Katie.
‘I don’t know that,’ said Lactimel.
KATIE’S FIRST BALL
In spite of Mrs. Val’s oft-repeated assurance
that they would have none but nice people, she had
done her best to fill her rooms, and not unsuccessfully.
She had, it is true, eschewed the Golightly party,
who resided some north of Oxford Street, in the purlieus
of Fitzroy Square, and some even to the east of Tottenham
Court Road. She had eschewed the Golightlys, and
confined herself to the Scott connexion; but so great
had been her success in life, that, even under these
circumstances, she had found herself able to fill
her rooms respectably. If, indeed, there was
no absolute crowding, if some space was left in the
front drawing-room sufficient for the operations of
dancers, she could still attribute this apparent want
of fashionable popularity to the selections of the
few nice people whom she had asked. The Hon.
Mrs. Val was no ordinary woman, and understood well
how to make the most of the goods with which the gods
provided her.
The Miss Neverbends were to dine with the Tudors,
and go with them to the dance in the evening, and
their brother Fidus was to meet them there. Charley
was, of course, one of the party at dinner; and as
there was no other gentleman there, Alaric had an
excellent opportunity, when the ladies went up to their
toilets, to impress on his cousin the expediency of
his losing no time in securing to himself Miss Golightly’s
twenty thousand pounds. The conversation, as
will be seen, at last became rather animated.
‘Well, Charley, what do you think of the beautiful
Clementina?’ said Alaric, pushing over the bottle
to his cousin, as soon as they found themselves alone.
’A ‘doosed’ fine girl, as Captain
Val says, isn’t she?’
’A ‘doosed’ fine girl, of course,’
said Charley, laughing. ’She has too much
go in her for me, I’m afraid.’
’Marriage and children will soon pull that down.
She’d make an excellent wife for such a man
as you; and to tell you the truth, Charley, if you’ll
take my advice, you’ll lose no time in making
up to her. She has got that d——
French fellow at her heels, and though I don’t
suppose she cares one straw about him, it may be well
to make sure.’
’But you don’t mean in earnest that you
think that Miss Golightly would have me?’
’Indeed I do—you are just the man
to get on with girls; and, as far as I can see, you
are just the man that will never get on in any other
way under the sun.’
Charley sighed as he thought of his many debts, his
poor prospects, and his passionate love. There
seemed, indeed, to be little chance that he ever would
get on at all in the ordinary sense of the word.
‘I’m sure she’d refuse me,’
said he, still wishing to back out of the difficulty.
’I’m sure she would—I’ve
not got a penny in the world, you know.’
