CHAPTER IV
OUTSIDE, the carriage doors closed with an unremitting bang-bang-bang, and the crowd of guests hurried on past the idle crowd of onlookers, up the stairs to the dressing-rooms, whence later it merged itself into the stream flowing into the ballroom.
It seemed to Priscilla as if the whole world was marching up to her, shaking her by the hand, greeting her monotonously, and passing on again. She stood beside her mother, very straight, her head up, her face flushed, determined not to disgrace this glorious mother of hers, no matter what the cost. But it seemed strange to her that any one could think this clatter and crowding pleasant.
Her thoughts flew back to the little school dances which constituted her idea
45
