The Turner family dance is about to start and Alice is getting ready to go out. She had to dress herself and her mother up for the ball. She was now 14 years old and it was her first time attending such an event, and she had to be very good, even more so than Lilith.

Lillith, a well-known beauty in the area, was two years older than Alice, and two years ago, when she first appeared on the social scene at a social ball in Doolin, she impressed everyone there with her elegance, witty conversation, and stunning beauty. Alice remembers that at that ball, all the handsome boys in the neighborhood, well, including her brother, asked her to dance one by one. She became the center of attention at the entire party, and all of this made Alice envious.

Now Alice was trying to remember what Lilith was wearing to the ball, and it looked like she was wearing a long white dress with no special decorations on it, but maybe she didn't remember very well. I asked my nanny about it, but what she said was completely different from what I remembered - even the color of the dress was different.

"Miss Alice, if I may say so, don't think about how Miss Lillith was dressed at the time, her style is completely different from yours." The nurse said, "You shouldn't imitate her, and you can't imitate her."

"You mean I'm not as good as Lilith!" Alice pouted unhappily, her tears coming to her eyes. But she also knew that she was no match for Lilith. Lilith's slender figure, stood there quietly, like a statue of an ancient Greek goddess. She was half a head shorter than Lilith, and her legs were much shorter. She also looked down at her breasts, well, they are still not full enough, there is only a vague rise and fall - still a child who has not grown up at all.

"That's not what I meant," Nanny said as she saw the tears falling out of Lilith's eyes and rushed out to comfort her, "I meant that you're pretty too, Miss Alice, just not the same kind of pretty as Miss Lilith."

The mother explained clumsily, but the effect of this explanation was not obvious. It was her mother who was better at talking.

"Ah, Alice, what Nanny means is that Helen's beauty is not the same as Psyker's."

Helen and Psyker were both the most beautiful women in Greek mythology. Helen, who started the Trojan War, was no less beautiful than Helen, and Psyker, who made all the Greek heroes feel ashamed of themselves under her glory and made Aphrodite, the god of love and beauty, jealous, was no less beautiful than Helen, and perhaps even more so.

The mother's comment gave Alice a little comfort, but she was still uncertain about which dress she should wear. The last thing she did was choose a green dress for her to wear.

Alice looked at herself carefully in front of the mirror, turned around again, and then turned to her mother and asked, "Does it look good?"

"Oh, my daughter is so beautiful, she looks like a fairy in the woods!" Mom replied with a smile.

Doubtingly, Alice made another turn in front of the mirror, "Nana, perhaps you should tighten my waist a little more."

"Miss Alice, it's already tight enough, any tighter and you'll turn into a bee. And you'll probably pass out while dancing." The nurse shook her head in disbelief and said, "Miss Lillith's waist is not that small."

At this time, from downstairs, Father shouted, "Ladies, we're about to go, are you ready?"

"Just about ready, just about ready! Wait just a little longer, just a little longer!" Alice rushed to the window, opened it, and shouted outside. She saw her father and brother standing at the bottom of the stairs, and the two carriages of the family were waiting there with their horses harnessed.

"Miss Alice, you still have your hat on." Nana came over with a hat.

"Nana ...... I told you I don't like this style of hat."

"But Miss, the kind you like is not acceptable. No decent woman would wear that kind of hat on a formal occasion ...... Listen to me ......"

......

Downstairs on the steps, old Leander asked his son, "Joyce, how long do you think it will be before your mother and sister come downstairs?"

"Alice said they'd be ready soon, so I guess another half hour will be enough," Joyce replied.

"Then we'd better go in and smoke a cigar." Old Leonid smiled and shook his head.

Just as Joyce had expected, it was another half hour or so before Alice and the others came downstairs. Then they all got into the carriage and headed for the Turner house.

The Turners were Irish immigrants like them, but in terms of time in Mississippi, they were a generation ahead of them, and because they were both Irish immigrants, the two families had always been close to each other. The Turners had a large plantation on the banks of the Mississippi River, which produced some of the best cottons in the world.

The Turners had three sons, George, the oldest, Jack, the second, and Anthony, the third. George fought in the war with Mexico and was the commander of a cavalry platoon, also a handsome young man, but George is a serious person, not very talkative. Jack is quite lively but is now serving in the cavalry, now is not to see him. The rest is Anthony, Anthony is home, but the reason he is home is that he was fired from West Point.

Among the three sons of the Turner family, Anthony was the most incompetent one, but he was not to blame. It was said that when he was just left, he had a serious illness and almost died. Later, his health has not been good, three days of illness, it is said that there will be frequent hallucinations. Later, according to his family's tradition, he also entered West Point, but his physical quality was really not suitable for West Point, and he failed all the courses as long as they involved physical aspects.

When he returned home, Anthony, who had nothing to do, became fascinated with literature, and it is said that he published some poems and songs in some literary journals. But the response was very limited and compared with his predecessor (Edgar Allan Poe) who was also bombarded from West Point, it was much worse. However, his family's condition was much better than Edgar Allan Poe's, so he did not have to worry about his living.

The carriage came out of the Doolin estate, turned to the right, and walked along the willow road along the bank of the Mississippi River for about an hour, and a red roof was revealed in the green trees in front - the Turner's estate was there.

The carriage left the main road and took a tree-covered path. After following the path and making two turns, the white gate of the Turner house came into view. At that moment, two carriages followed from behind. Alice glanced back and recognized that it was the Anderson carriage - and that Lilith must be in it.

The door of the Turner house was already open, and their housekeeper was busy at the door with a few black slaves. On the right after entering the door, there were several carriages parked.

The carriages came to a stop in front of the Turner's building, where Turner was greeting his guests with his two sons. When they saw the Leander family get out of the carriage, they welcomed them as well.

"Ah, Alice is here for the ball. Well, she's already a beautiful young lady." Looking at Alice getting out of the carriage, Turner said with a smile.

"Hello, Uncle Turner." Alice pulled on the hem of her skirt and curtsied to Turner.

By this time, Anderson's carriage had also arrived, and the first to get out was Anderson, followed by Anderson's wife and his daughter, Lilith.

"Anderson, welcome!" Turner had just exchanged pleasantries with Leander, and when he saw Anderson, he rushed to welcome them again. "Ah, Lilith, you're getting more and more attractive, if I were 30 years younger, I would be as crazy about you as those youngsters."

Iris also looked over towards that side, she looked at Lilith and couldn't help but lower her head.

The party had not yet begun, but the hall was already bustling. The invited estate owners greeted each other, the women complimented each other on their dress and appearance, and the men nodded to each other in a reserved manner - it was not time for them to talk in detail.

"Ah, Leander, you're late." A balding man greeted Leander from afar.

"Ah, it's Mr. Fourier, you're early today."

"Of course, we don't have a daughter in the house." The bald man smiled and said.

This bald man is called Fourier, and is also a nearby farm owner, their family has five sons, but no daughter. It is said that this makes the old Fourier very dissatisfied, and sometimes will therefore half-truths to blame his wife.

Following closely behind Leander, Anderson and the family also entered the hall. At this point, Alice does not need to look back, just look at the performance of Fourier's five sons will know. Just now the eyes of the young men are still on their own, but now, before the father introduced himself to them, their eyes have already crossed over themselves and looked behind them - needless to say, they must have seen Lilith.

Sure enough, the young men in front of them were already getting a little distracted, especially when the words came from behind them like, "Miss Lillith, how nice to see you!" "Miss Lilith, may I have the honor of inviting you to a dance later?" After these kinds of words, the young people's faces even showed anxious looks.

Finally, old Fourier said something like, "Leander, Anderson is here too, let's go over and say hello to them, well, we can also show off to Anderson who doesn't have a son."

"I'm afraid he's going to show off to you that he has a daughter, right?" Leander said with a smirk.

"Well, it's not even as good as you, with a son and a daughter ......"