"Maybe she would. She couldn't have been very nice herself, or she would never have gone and asked a man to marry her," said Felicity.
"Why not?"
"Goodness me, it was dreadful! Would you do such a thing yourself?"
"Well, I don't know," said the Story Girl, her eyes gleaming with impish laughter. "If I wanted him dreadfully, and he wouldn't do the asking, perhaps I would."
"I'd rather die an old maid forty times over," exclaimed Felicity.
"Nobody as pretty as you will ever be an old maid, Felicity," said Peter, who never put too fine an edge on his compliments.
Felicity tossed her golden tressed head and tried to look angry, but made a dismal failure of it.
"It wouldn't be ladylike to ask any one to marry you, you know," argued Cecily.
"I don't suppose the Family Guide would think so," agreed the Story Girl lazily, with some sarcasm in her voice. The Story Girl never held the Family Guide in such reverence as did Felicity and Cecily. They pored over the "etiquette column" every week, and could have told you on demand, just exactly what kind of gloves should be worn at a wedding, what you should say when introducing or being introduced, and how you ought to look when your best young man came to see you.
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