About this story
A carriage, a private room, and three mistresses in a flutter are enough to make curiosity respectable. You step into this one-chapter preview with Dorothy Collingwood at the center, where choices turn on the people, promises, and pressure already in the room. The supper party waited to see whether she would accept guidance or test another boundary. The chapter closes on a continuation question rather than resolving the novel's larger arc.
How it opens
Every girl at Mulberry Court was discussing the pupil arriving unexpectedly in the middle of term.
A carriage, a private room, and three mistresses in a flutter are enough to make curiosity respectable.
Janet MayCuriosity remains wasted time merely because everyone has caught it at once.
You were Dorothy, watching the avenue from the Lookout with Janet, Olive Moore, and Ruth Bury.
Olive MooreViolet says the Blue Room has new furniture, though she had no business peeping inside.
Ruth BurySupper will answer what gossip cannot, and our Fancy Fair still has no programme.