Please tell me quite often that I am pretty , if you do n't mind . I feel so much more comfortable when I can believe I 'm pretty . And I 'll be just as obliging to you if you want me to -- I CAN be , with a clear conscience . '' `` Thanks , '' laughed Anne , `` but Priscilla and I are so firmly convinced of our own good looks that we do n't need any assurance about them , so you need n't trouble . '' `` Oh , you 're laughing at me . I know you think I 'm abominably vain , but I 'm not . There really is n't one spark of vanity in me . And I 'm never a bit grudging about paying compliments to other girls when they deserve them . I 'm so glad I know you folks . I came up on Saturday and I 've nearly died of homesickness ever since . It 's a horrible feeling , is n't it ? In Bolingbroke I 'm an important personage , and in Kingsport I 'm just nobody ! There were times when I could feel my soul turning a delicate blue . Where do you hang out ? '' `` Thirty-eight St. John 's Street . '' `` Better and better . Why , I 'm just around the corner on Wallace Street . I do n't like my boardinghouse , though . It 's bleak and lonesome , and my room looks out on such an unholy back yard . It 's the ugliest place in the world .
As for cats -- well , surely ALL the XXXXX cats ca n't congregate there at night , but half of them must .
Anne Bolingbroke John Kingsport Priscilla St. Street boardinghouse corner girls