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Reade, Charles, 1814-1884

"A Woman-Hater"

"
Miss Maitland dived into the past and nodded approval.
Thus encouraged, Fanny proceeded to more modern rules. She let Miss
Maitland know it was always understood at her school that on these
occasions of tiff, reconciliation, and present, the girl who received the
present was to side in everything with the girl who gave it, for that one
day. "That is the real reason I put on my tight boots--to earn my brooch.
Isn't it a duck?"
_"Are_ they tight, then?"
"Awfully. See--new on to-day."
"But you could shake off your lameness in a moment."
"La, aunt, you know one can fight _with_ that sort of thing, or fight
_against_ it. It is like colds, and headaches, and fevers, and all that.
You are in bed, too ill to see anybody you don't much care for. Night
comes, and then you jump up and dress, and go to a ball, and leave your
cold and your fever behind you, because the ball won't wait till you are
well, and the bores will. So don't ask me to be unkind to Zoe,
brooch-day," said Fanny, skipping back to her first position with
singular pertinacity.
"Now, Fanny," said Miss Maitland, "who wants you to be unkind to her? But
you must and shall promise me not to lend her any more downright
encouragement, and to watch the man well.


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