"Come here, Beatrice," exclaimed Polly.
Mr. Jones was talking to Beatrice, and Polly hoped they would both
approach the window together.
"Come and tell us about that Adonis you went rowing with to-day," called
the girl in her shrill, half-jealous voice.
It was just at that moment that the door was flung open by Jane, and the
Bertrams made their appearance.
Catherine and Mabel wore the simplest white washing-dresses. Their
girlish waists were encircled by sashes of pale gold. Catherine's thick
dark hair was coiled tightly round her head--Mabel's more frizzy and
paler locks fell in wavy curls round her forehead and on her shoulders.
Nobody else looked the least like the Bertrams. Their dresses were as
cheap as any other girl's dresses in the room. Daisy and Polly Jenkins
had really much handsomer and finer hair, but somehow the effect
produced by the Bertrams was altogether different.
Mrs. Meadowsweet addressed them in a deferential tone as "Miss," and it
went like an electric flash through the minds of all the other visitors
that the old lady was quite right when she thought it her duty to
receive them in state.
Bertram was in flannels, and these were cut not exactly after the
pattern of those worn by young Bell, who looked with a sort of despair
at his true love, Daisy, whose eyes, in company with the three pairs of
eyes of the Bells, were directed full upon the aristocratic face of
Captain Bertram.
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