"
"Why, Nora?"
"Oh, because. I think it ought to come last. Aren't you
afraid? Whew! I am."
"No, I don't think I am."
"But won't you want to laugh?"
"Why?" said Daisy. "No, I do not think I shall want to laugh."
"I shall be too frightened to laugh," said Jane Linwood.
"I don't see, Daisy, how you will manage those queer wings of
yours," Nora resumed.
"I have not got to manage them at all. I have only to keep
still."
"I can't think how they will look," said Nora. "They don't
seem to me much like wings. I think they will look very
funny."
"Hush, children — run away; you are not wanted here. Go into
the drawing-room — and I will ring this hand-bell when I want
you."
"What comes first, aunt Sandford?"
"Run away! you will see."
So the younger ones repaired to the drawing-room, for what
seemed a weary time of waiting. Nora expressed her entire
disapprobation of being shut out from all the fun of the
dressing; she wanted to see that. She then declared that it
would be impossible to show all the twelve pictures that
evening, if it took so long to get ready for one. However, the
time was past at length; the signal was given; the lights in
the drawing-room were put down, till the room was very shadowy
indeed; and then, amid the breathless hush of expectation, the
curtain that hung over the doorway of the library was drawn
back.
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