Page 168 - LITTLE WOMEN

Little Women

but I want you to know all the dreadful things I did at the
Moffats’.’
‘We are prepared,’ said Mrs. March, smiling but
looking a little anxious.

‘I told you they dressed me up, but I didn’t tell you
that they powdered and squeezed and frizzled, and made
me look like a fashion plate. Laurie thought I wasn’t
proper. I know he did, though he didn’t say so, and one
man called me ‘a doll’. I knew it was silly, but they
flattered me and said I was a beauty, and quantities of
nonsense, so I let them make a fool of me.’
‘Is that all?’ asked Jo, as Mrs. March looked silently at
the downcast face of her pretty daughter, and could not
find it in her heart to blame her little follies.
‘No, I drank champagne and romped and tried to flirt,
and was altogether abominable,’ said Meg self-
reproachfully.
‘There is something more, I think.’ And Mrs. March
smoothed the soft cheek, which suddenly grew rosy as
Meg answered slowly...
‘Yes. It’s very silly, but I want to tell it, because I hate
to have people say and think such things about us and
Laurie.’

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