Then Neil
roused, and as if he had nerved himself for the sacrifice, manifested a
great deal of interest with regard to Bessie's personal appearance.
"I want you to get yourself up stunningly," he said, "so as to make a
good first appearance. I have told Grey so much about you that he must
not be disappointed."
"Ridiculous! I shall wear just what I wore yesterday, bow and all, for I
like it," Bessie said, with a little defiant toss of her head.
She, too, had been thinking while Neil sat so silent and moody by the
fire, and had decided that he had greatly changed for the worse since
she had seen him last--that he was hard to please, moody, exacting, and
quite too much given to criticising her and her dress.
"As if it is any of his business what I wear," she thought, and she took
a kind of exultant satisfaction in fastening on the knot of ribbon he
had condemned and which really was very becoming to her plain, dark
dress.
"I suppose, Mr. Grey Jerrold, I must waste a clean collar and a pair of
cuffs on you, though that will be so much more for me to iron next
week," she said, as she stood before the mirror in her room, which was
to be given to the coming guest, "I hope, sir, you will appreciate all I
am doing for you, for I assure you it is no small matter to turn out
from my comfortable quarters into that barn of a room where the wind
blows a hurricane and the rats scurry over the floor.
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