On this occasion she refused one dish
after another with a resolution which implied the rarest of all modern
martyrdoms--gastric martyrdom. "I have conceived the part of Lucy," she
observed, with the demurest gravity. "The next difficulty is to make
Frank conceive the part of Falkland. I see nothing to laugh at--you
would all be serious enough if you had my responsibilities. No, papa--no
wine to-day, thank you. I must keep my intelligence clear. Water,
Thomas--and a little more jelly, I think, before you take it away."
When Frank presented himself in the evening, ignorant of the
first elements of his part, she took him in hand, as a middle-aged
schoolmistress might have taken in hand a backward little boy. The few
attempts he made to vary the sternly practical nature of the evening's
occupation by slipping in compliments sidelong she put away from her
with the contemptuous self-possession of a woman of twice her age. She
literally forced him into his part. Her father fell asleep in his chair.
Mrs. Vanstone and Miss Garth lost their interest in the proceedings,
retired to the further end of the room, and spoke together in whispers.
It grew later and later; and still Magdalen never flinched from her
task--still, with equal perseverance, Norah, who had been on the watch
all through the evening, kept on the watch to the end.
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