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But she saw them making mental notes of what she wore, and
for some reason this quite “put her about”. For once in her life when
she wasn’t wearing what everybody else did, she reflected, she didn’t
see why everybody else should want to wear what she did.
“Gilbert,” said she, quite sharply for her, “next time you’re
designing dresses for me I wish you’d design things that people can’t
copy.”
“The only way to do that is to design things that only you can
wear.”
“Can’t you do that?”
“Yes, if you’ll do something for me.”
“What is it?”
“Cut off your hair.”
I think this was the first time that Jane jibbed. Her hair was
long and thick, and as a girl she had been quite vain of it; to cut it off
was a very drastic proceeding. This really was burning her boats
behind her. In her case it was not the first step that cost so much, it
was the last; but she took it (“I know Marion will think me a perfect
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fool, and I shall never be able to go Liverpool again ,” she said), and
when they passed through Paris on their way home Gilbert led her
(she felt quite sick, her heart was beating so fast) to the best
hairdresser in the world. She came out of his shop with a jaunty,
saucy, impudent head of crisp grey curls. Pygmalion had finished his
fantastic masterpiece: Galatea was come to life.
“Yes,” I said, “but that isn’t enough to explain why Jane is here
to-night amid this crowd of duchesses, cabinet ministers and such
like; nor why she is sitting on one side of her host with an admiral of
the Fleet on the other.”
“Jane is a humorist,” said Mrs. Tower. “Didn’t you see them all
laughing at what she said?”
There was no doubt now of the bitterness in Mrs. Tower’s
heart.
“When Jane wrote and told me they were back from their
honeymoon I thought I must ask them both to dinner. I didn’t much
like the idea, but I felt it had to be done. I knew the party would be
deadly and I wasn’t going to sacrifice any of the people who really
mattered. On the other hand I didn’t want Jane to think I hadn’t any

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to go Liverpool again – повернутися до провінційного стилю одягу