"You're
supposed to be quite complete there. And it is heaven, isn't it, Rose?
See how everything has been let in together--the dandelions and the
irises, the vulgar and the superior, me and Mrs. Fisher--all welcome,
all mixed up anyhow, and all so visibly happy and enjoying ourselves."
"Mrs. Fisher doesn't seem happy--not visibly, anyhow," said Mrs.
Arbuthnot, smiling.
"She'll begin soon, you'll see."
Mrs. Arbuthnot said she didn't believe that after a certain age
people began anything.
Mrs. Wilkins said she was sure no one, however old and tough,
could resist the effects of perfect beauty. Before many days, perhaps
only hours, they would see Mrs. Fisher bursting out into every kind of
exuberance. "I'm quite sure," said Mrs. Wilkins, "that we've got to
heaven, and once Mrs. Fisher realizes that that's where she is, she's
bound to be different. You'll see. She'll leave off being ossified,
and go all soft and able to stretch, and we shall get quite--why, I
shouldn't be surprised if we get quite fond of her."
The idea of Mrs. Fisher bursting out into anything, she who
seemed so particularly firmly fixed inside her buttons, made Mrs.
Arbuthnot laugh. She condoned Lotty's loose way of talking of heaven,
because in such a place, on such a morning, condonation was in the very
air.
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