"What's finishing school?" Rose asked. "I would go there. You could train to become a teacher, and that would really make you independent!" She smiled at Pearl. She had no clue.

"Finishing school isn't that kind of school... It is where a young woman goes to learn how to be a lady. They teach things like how to dip the proper curtsy, or how to address your betters, but nothing like mathematics or reading... In fact, they frown upon reading and sums... Being clever isn't supposed to be part of a woman's schedule." She said this without batting an eyelash, she was telling the truth of it. "If you wish to become a teacher or a governess, you must have finished your primary education at the very least."

Rose looked at her confused, and then burst into giggles. "That's the ridiculousest thing I have ever heard!" She exclaimed. "Don't waste your time there!"

"I told you! The rich do some strange things, do they not?" She picked up a piece of driftwood and then straightened her back, lifted her chin and placed the piece on her head to balance... "Why, your majesty!" She dipped a perfectly executed curtsy and the wood stayed in place. "What a lovely day it is to be a lady, would you not say?"

That provoked a new round of giggles from Rose. She took a piece of wood from the basket and tried to curtsy, but the wood almost immediately fell off. She picked it up with the same result. "As if they're training you to be a circus performer!"

"And the girls there, so... ugh... so snooty! If I so much as fart, all eyes would be on me in horror as if no other person in the world ever farted. Why, it's insanity, that is what it is. And my mother insisted I do it so I could find a good match in a husband!" She put the driftwood into the basket. "I refuse to marry to social climb. If I ever do, it will be because I love him and that is that."

That image had her laughing so hard that she had to sit down in the sand. She wiped some tears of joy from her eyes and looked up at the other girl. She couldn't remember when she had last laughed - really laughed. "Are rich husbands afraid of wives who fart?" she asked, still trying to control her giggles. "You're completely right not to marry! At some point you'll be so full of gas, you'll float away!" She began to laugh again.

"It really is considered social ruin," she said soberly after a bout of laughter, "To burp and break wind." She pretended to stand there like her old teacher had once, her hands clasped before her. "One must never allow the men to hear that any passing of wind is happening, for it is completely unladylike."

Rose still sat there and raised her hand. "Excuse me Miss, I have to go -, Oh no! Too late!" She covered her mouth with cupped hands and made a farting sound with her lips. Even Rose would be embarrassed if someone she knew saw her be so vulgar, but she was having too much fun to worry about it.

"Now child, you can NEVER show your face in public again! That is disgusting!" Then Pearl fell over laughing. "What must our families think of us? Ahahahahaha." Tears were running down her face.