They could not in fact do anything else, since their new corsets had them strapped into a rigid position. Both were dressed in blonde lace tea gowns, Molly’s threaded with scarlet ribbon and Mary’s with blue. Both wore large picture hats embellished with fruit and roses. Their glossy hair had been put up for the first time. The girls had just completed their first social engagement, a garden party at the rectory, which Lady Fanny had felt would not be too demanding for their first occasion. Lady Fanny had developed a headache at the last moment so the girls had been sent on their own with a list of instructions. They were to confine their conversation to yes and no. Mary was not to slurp her tea or get crumbs on her dress. If pressed, they might converse about the weather. On no account must they ever mention that dreadful Maguire’s Leprechaun Dew. Let people assume their family fortune came from some respectable American business like railroads, or “Daddy made a killing on Wall Street.”
