" How Marjorie's soul rebelled
against the constant repetition of those expressions! How she thought she
would never _let_ her little girls know what one of them meant! If she
and her little girls had to be saving and do without, how brave they
would be about it, and laugh over it, and never ding it into anybody's
ears! And she would never constantly be asking what things cost! Miss
Prudence never asked such questions. But she would like to know if that
gold pen cost so very much, and that glass inkstand shaped like a
pyramid, and all that cream note-paper with maple tassels and autumn
leaves and butterflies and ever so many cunning things painted in its
left corners. And there was a pile of foolscap on the table, and some
long, yellow envelopes, and some old books and some new books and an
ivory paper-cutter; all something apart from the commonplace world she
inhabited. Not apart from the world her thoughts and desires revelled
in; not her hopes, for she had not gotten so far as to hope to live in a
magical world like Miss Prudence. And yet when Miss Prudence did not wear
white she was robed in deep mourning; there was sorrow in Miss Prudence's
magical world.
It was some few moments before the roving eyes could settle themselves
upon the paper and pencil she had been sent for; she would have liked to
choose a sheet of the thick cream-paper with the autumn leaves painted on
it, but that was not for study, and Miss Prudence certainly intended
study, although there was fun in her eyes.
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