She had not been aware that Lord Coombe and
Mademoiselle Valle had directed and discussed her training as if
it had been that of a young royal person whose equipment must be
a flawless thing. If the Dowager Duchess of Darte had wished to
present her at Court some fair morning she would have known the
length of the train she must wear, where she must make her curtseys
and to whom and to what depth, how to kiss the royal hand, and
how to manage her train when she retired from the presence. When
she had been taught this she had asked Mademoiselle Valle if the
training was part of every girl's education and Mademoiselle had
answered,
"It is best to know everything--even ceremonials which may or may
not prove of use. It all forms part of a background and prevents
one from feeling unfamiliar with customs."
When she had passed the young pairs in the streets she had found
an added interest in them because of this background. She could
imagine them dancing together in fairy ball rooms whose lights
and colours her imagination was obliged to construct for her out
of its own fabric; she knew what the girls would look like if they
went to a Drawing Room and she often wondered if they would feel
shy when the page spread out their lovely peacock tails for them
and left them to their own devices. It was mere Nature that she
should have pondered and pondered and sometimes unconsciously
longed to feel herself part of the flood of being sweeping past
her as she stood apart on the brink of the river.
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