Monday, December 15, 2014

What is "Sheridan girls" in Mansfield's "Her First Ball"?

The question isn't so much "what is Sheridan girls" as it
is "who are the Sheridan girls." They are first of all, the sisters with whom Leila is
going to the ball. They are secondly, the sisters of their brother Laurie (usually short
for Laurence). Thirdly, they all are Leila's cousins: "This is my little country cousin
Leila. Be nice to her."

The Sheridans and their cousin Leila are on
their way to a ball, the first ever for Leila. She had been raised in the country
without benefit of society since their "nearest neighbour was fifteen miles," but now we
are to infer that she and her mother have moved to the city as she begs her mother "to
ring up her cousins and say she couldn't go [to the ball] after all." The Sheridan
girls' names are Meg, Jose, and Laura.


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But every single thing was so new and exciting
[to Leila] ... Meg's tuberoses, Jose's long loop of amber, Laura's little dark head,
pushing above her white fur like a flower through
snow.


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