Patricia makes her debut.
For three days we had been overseeing the details. Would they
approve the result? Would they think the grand piano in the proper
corner? Were the garlands hung too low? Was the balcony scheme
effective? Was our menu for the supper satisfactory? Were there
too many lanterns? Lord and Lady Brighthelmston had superintended
so little, and we so much, that we felt personally responsible.
Now came musicians with their instruments. The butler sent four
melancholy Spanish students to the balcony, where they began to tune
mandolins and guitars, while an Hungarian band took up its position,
we conjectured, on some extension or balcony in the rear, the
existence of which we had not guessed until we heard the music
later. Then the butler turned on the electric light, and the family
came into the drawing-rooms.
They did admire them as much as we could wish, and we, on our part,
thoroughly approved of the family. We had feared it might prove
dull, plain, dowdy, though wellborn, with only dear Patricia to
enliven it; but it was well-dressed, merry, and had not a thought of
glancing at the windows or pulling down the blinds, bless its simple
heart!
The mother entered first, wearing a grey satin gown and a diamond
crown that quite established her position in the great world.
