A few days ago I wrote out the name "Emilie" for a little creative writing project, and the pretentious spelling gave me a flashback to many years ago, and I could hear young Polly clearly exclaiming in my head "Dear lord, Fanny, the way you all write your names with "ie" – Marie, Fannie, I'll be calling myself Pollie next!" It was supposed to be hilarious, and it was.
And the next minute I could remember another scene- when one of the boys, deeply concerned and agitated, asks Pollie -sorry Polly- whether his fiancée "paints".
Pollie -ok I'll stop now- knows exactly what he means, but plays dumb and says sure, she paints and draws a bit.
The guy friend who was called something like Tom or John tells her to stop, he's serious.
Yes Gentle Reader, the sluttish fiancée hid a terrible secret. She was a painted alien She used make-up.
Water had splashed on her face, Tom/John had raised his handkerchief to wipe it off, she had shrieked and pushed his hand away, then dabbed gently at her cheek herself- "And I swear Polly, one cheek was paler than the other.", finished Tom/John, recounting how he found out his fiancee was an awful, subpar woman.
I think the story ends with Polly marrying the guy, obviously?
Anyway, my point is, An Old-Fashioned Girl occupied the same moral universe as Little Woman, and was just as bright and charming and fun, and it's kinda unfair how it fell into the oblivion while Jo, Beth, Mary, Amy and Laurie continue striding onto immortality.
by 1000andonenites