'One needs to look as innocent as a pony to have that bow really suit one,' she said.
Althea, in this accession of new life, again felt relegated to the background.

Helen did not join in the revels, but there was no air of being relegated about her; she might have been the jaded and kindly queen before whom they were enacted.

'Dear Helen,' said Lady Pickering to Mildred and Althea, 'I can see that she's down on her luck and very bored with life.

But it's always nice having her about, isn't it?
Always nice to have her to look at.' Althea felt that her guests found no such decorative uses for herself, and that they took it for granted that, with a suitor to engage her attention, she would be quite satisfied to remain outside, even if above, the gayer circle.

She could not deny that her acceptance of Franklin's devotion before Helen's arrival, their air of happy withdrawal--a withdrawal that had then made them conspicuous, not negligible--absolutely justified her guests in their over-tactfulness.
They still took it for granted that she and Franklin wanted to be alone together; they still left them in an isolation almost bridal; but now Althea did not want to be left alone with Franklin, and above all wished to detach herself from any bridal association; and she tormented herself with accusations concerning her former graciousness, responsible as it was for her present discomfort.