I didn't actually know what I'd do with both Nannie and her away. I
couldn't help wishing that the Ervengs had asked Nora instead of Betty,
and I know Betty wished so, too, for you never saw a madder person than
she was when she came upstairs to help nurse pack her trunk: you see she
didn't dare make any objections, as long as papa had given his consent,
but she didn't want to go one step, and she just let us know it. "I'll
have to be on my company manners the whole livelong time, and I simply
_loathe_ that," she fumed. "Mrs. Erveng won't let me play with Hilliard,
I'm sure she won't, 'that's so unladylike!'"--mimicking Mrs. Erveng's
slow, gentle voice,--"and I never know what to talk to _her_ about. I
suppose I'll have to sit up and twirl my thumbs, like a regular Miss
Prim, from morning to night. Why didn't they ask _you_?" wheeling round
on Nora. "You and Mrs. Erveng seem to be such fine friends, and you suit
her better than I do. I always feel as if she looked upon me as a
clumsy, overgrown hoiden, an uncouth sort of animal."
"I couldn't very well be spared from home just now," answered Nora,
calmly, with her little superior air; "and any way, I presume Mrs.
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