He was as gay as the youngest , danced splendidly , went everywhere , and took all the Glenboro girls about impartially . It was rumoured that he had come east to look for a wife but he did n't seem to be in any particular hurry to find her . One evening he called on Jerry ; that is to say , he did ask for both of us , but within ten minutes Jerry had him mewed up in the cosy corner to the exclusion of all the rest of the world . I felt that I was a huge crowd , so I obligingly decamped upstairs and sat down by my window to `` muse , '' as Miss Ponsonby would have said . It was a glorious moonlight night , with just a hint of October frost in the air -- enough to give sparkle and tang . After a few moments I became aware that Miss Ponsonby was also `` musing '' at her window in the shadow of the acacia tree . In that dim light she looked quite pretty . It was suddenly borne in upon me for the first time that , when Miss Ponsonby was young , she must have been very pretty , with that delicate elusive fashion of beauty which fades so early if the life is not kept in it by love and tenderness . It seemed odd , somehow , to think of Miss Ponsonby as young and pretty . She seemed so essentially middle-aged and faded . `` Lovely night , Miss Ponsonby , '' I said brilliantly . `` A very beautiful night , dear Elizabeth , '' answered Miss Ponsonby in that tired little voice of hers that always seemed as drab-coloured as the rest of her . `` I 'm mopy , '' I said frankly . `` Jerry has concentrated herself on Stephen Shaw for the evening and I 'm left on the fringe of things . '' Miss Ponsonby did n't say anything for a few moments . When she spoke some strange and curious note had come into her voice , as if a chord , long unswept and silent , had been suddenly thrilled by a passing hand . `` Did I understand you to say that Geraldine was -- entertaining Stephen Shaw ? '' `` Yes . He 's home from the west and he 's delightful , '' I replied . `` All the Glenboro girls are quite crazy over him .
Jerry and I are as bad XXXXX the rest .
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