Little Women. Louisa May Alcott

      ‘Ought they to smoke like that?’ asked Beth, from her perch on the bed.

      ‘It’s the dampness drying,’ replied Jo.

      ‘What a queer smell! it’s like burnt feathers,’ observed Amy, smoothing her own pretty curls with a superior air.

      ‘There, now I’ll take off the papers and you’ll see a cloud of little ringlets,’ said Jo, putting down the tongs.

      She did take off the papers, but no cloud of ringlets appeared, for the hair came with the papers, and the horrified hairdresser laid a row of little scorched bundles on the bureau before her victim.

      ‘Oh, oh, oh! what have you done? I’m spoilt! I can’t go! My hair, oh, my hair!’ wailed Meg, looking with despair at the uneven frizzle on her forehead.

      ‘Just my luck; you shouldn’t have asked me to do it; I always spoil everything. I’m so sorry, but the tongs were too hot, and so I’ve made a mess,’ groaned poor Jo, regarding the black pancakes with tears of regret.

      ‘It isn’t spoilt: just frizzle it, and tie your ribbon so the ends come on your forehead a bit, and it will look like the last fashion. I’ve seen many girls do it so,’ said Amy, consolingly.

      ‘Serves me right for trying to be fine. I wish I’d let my hair alone,’ cried Meg, petulantly.

      ‘So do I, it was so smooth and pretty. But it will soon grow out again,’ said Beth, coming to kiss and comfort the shorn sheep.

      After various lesser mishaps, Meg was finished at last, and by the united exertions of the family, Jo’s hair was got up and her dress on. They looked very well in their simple suits. Meg in silvery drab, with a blue velvet snood, lace frills, and the pearl pin; Jo in maroon, with a stiff, gentlemanly linen collar and a white chrysanthemum or two for her only ornament. Each put on the one nice light glove, and carried one soiled one, and all pronounced the effect ‘quite easy and fine’. Meg’s high-heeled slippers were very tight, and hurt her, though she would not own it, and Jo’s nineteen hairpins all seemed stuck straight into her head, which was not exactly comfortable; but, dear me, let us be elegant or die!

      ‘Have a good time, dearies!’ said Mrs March, as the sisters went daintily down the walk. ‘Don’t eat much supper, and come away at eleven, when I send Hannah for you.’ As the gate clashed behind them, a voice cried from a window:

      ‘Girls, girls! have you both got nice pocket-handkerchiefs?’

      ‘Yes, yes, spandy nice, and Meg has cologne on hers,’ cried Jo, adding with a laugh, as they went on, ‘I do believe Marmee would ask that if we were all running away from an earthquake.’

      ‘It is one of her aristocratic tastes, and quite proper, for a real lady is always known by neat boots, gloves, and handkerchief,’ replied Meg, who had a good many little ‘aristocratic tastes’ of her own.

      ‘Now don’t forget to keep the bad breadth out of sight, Jo. Is my sash right? and does my hair look very bad?’ said Meg, as she turned from the glass in Mrs Gardiner’s dressing room, after a prolonged prink.

      ‘I know I shall forget. If you see me doing anything wrong just remind me by a wink, will you?’ returned Jo, giving her collar a twitch and her hair a hasty brush.

      ‘No, winking isn’t lady-like; I’ll lift my eyebrows if anything is wrong, and nod if you are all right. Now hold your shoulders straight and take short steps, and don’t shake hands if you are introduced to anyone: it isn’t the thing.’

      ‘How do you learn all the proper ways? I never can. Isn’t that music gay?’

      Down they went, feeling a trifle timid, for they seldom went to parties, and, informal as this little gathering was, it was an event to them. Mrs Gardiner, a stately old lady, greeted them kindly, and handed them over to the eldest of her six daughters. Meg knew Sallie, and was at her ease very soon; but Jo, who didn’t care much for girls or girlish gossip, stood about, with her back carefully against the wall and felt as much out of place as a colt in a flower-garden. Half a dozen jovial lads were talking about skates in another part of the room, and she longed to go and join them, for skating was one of the joys of her life. She telegraphed her wish to Meg, but the eyebrows went up so alarmingly that she dared not stir. No one came to talk to her, and one by one the group near her dwindled away, till she was left alone. She could not roam about and amuse herself, for the burnt breadth would show, so she stared at people rather forlornly till the dancing began. Meg was asked at once, and the tight slippers tripped about so briskly that none would have guessed the pain their wearer suffered smilingly. Jo saw a big red-headed youth approaching her corner, and fearing he meant to engage her, she slipped into a curtained recess, intending to peep and enjoy herself in peace. Unfortunately, another bashful person had chosen the same refuge; for, as the curtain fell behind her, she found herself face to face with the ‘Laurence boy’.

      ‘Dear me, I didn’t know anyone was here!’ stammered Jo, preparing to back out as speedily as she had bounced in.

      But the boy laughed, and said pleasantly, though he looked a little startled:

      ‘Don’t mind me; stay if you like.’

      ‘Shan’t I disturb you?’

      ‘Not a bit; I only came here because I don’t know many people, and I felt rather strange at first, you know.’

      ‘So did I. Don’t go away, please, unless you’d rather.’

      The boy sat down again and looked at his pumps, till Jo said, trying to be polite and easy:

      ‘I think I’ve had the pleasure of seeing you before; you live near us, don’t you?’

      ‘Next door’; and he looked up and laughed outright, for Jo’s prim manner was rather funny, when he remembered how they had chatted about cricket when he brought the cat home.

      That put Jo at her ease; and she laughed too, as she said, in her heartiest way:

      ‘We did have such a good time over your nice Christmas present.’

      ‘Grandpa sent it.’

      ‘But you put it into his head, didn’t you, now?’

      ‘How is your cat, Miss March?’ asked the boy, trying to look sober, while his black eyes shone with fun.

      ‘Nicely, thank you, Mr Laurence; but I am not Miss March, I’m only Jo,’ returned the young lady.

      ‘I’m not Mr Laurence, I’m only Laurie.’

      ‘Laurie Laurence – what an odd name!’

      ‘My first name is Theodore, but I don’t like it, for the fellows called me Dora, so I made them say Laurie instead.’

      ‘I hate my name, too – so sentimental! I wish everyone would say Jo, instead of Josephine. How did you make the boys stop calling you Dora?’

      ‘I thrashed ’em.’

      ‘I can’t thrash Aunt March, so I suppose I shall have to bear it’; and Jo resigned herself with a sigh.

      ‘Do you like parties?’ she asked in a moment.

      ‘Sometimes; you see I’ve been abroad a good many years, and haven’t been in company enough yet to know how you do things here.’

      ‘Abroad!’ cried Jo. ‘Oh, tell me about it! I love dearly to hear people describe their travels.’

      Laurie didn’t seem to know where to begin; but Jo’s eager questions soon set him going, and he told her how he had been at school in Vevey, where the boys never wore hats, and had a fleet of boats on the lake, and for holiday fun went on walking trips about Switzerland with their teachers.

      ‘Don’t I wish I’d been there!’ cried Jo. ‘Did you go to Paris?’

      ‘We spent last winter there.’

      ‘Can