Why should you have to
take to gambling, at your time of life? You're not shamming _ennui_, are
you, to imitate your swell acquaintances? _Ennui!_ I could cure their
_ennui_ for them, if they'd only come to _me_!" she added, somewhat
scornfully.
"A cure for _ennui_?" he said. "That would be valuable; what is it?"
"I'd tell them to light a wax match and put it up their nostril and hold
it there till it went out," she answered, with some sharpness.
"It would make them jump, anyway, wouldn't it?" he said, listlessly.
"It would give them something to claim their very earnest attention for
at least a fortnight," Miss Burgoyne observed, with decision; and then
she had to ask him to open the door, for it was time for her to get up
to the wings.
Christmas was now close at hand, and one evening when Harry Thornhill,
attired in his laced coat and ruffles, silken stockings and buckled
shoes, went as usual into Miss Burgoyne's room, he perceived that she
had, somewhere or other, obtained a piece of mistletoe, which she had
placed on the top of the piano. As soon as Grace Mainwaring knew he was
there, she came forth from the dressing-room and went to the big mirror,
kicking out her resplendent train of flounced white satin behind her,
and proceeding to judge of the general effect of her powder and patches
and heavily-pencilled eyebrows.
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