Page:Ethel Churchill 2.pdf/204

202 going mad; but, at all events, I will not aid and abet you in so doing. You are now in town, and a town life you must lead." "I have," replied Ethel, leaning languidly back in her chair, "neither health nor spirits for gaiety." "A girl of nineteen talking of health and spirits!" interrupted her visitor; "why, you have beauty enough to supply the place of both. However, I have no objection to your adopting le genre languissant, it will the less interfere with my own. If you were to come out starry and startling, we should not be friends a week." "Oh, Henrietta!" exclaimed Ethel, half reproachfully. "Nay, don't look so serious; or, rather, upon second thoughts, do; for it is singularly becoming to you. It is delightful to think how we shall set each other off. I am dark, classical, and have some thoughts of binding my black tresses with myrtle, and letting Sir Godfrey Kneller finish my portrait as Aspasia: you, on the contrary, are soft, fair, with the