Page:Josephine Daskam--Sister's vocation.djvu/217

 she had rapidly formed them, no one less self-absorbed than her cousin could doubt. She saw a head of lovely flaxen hair curled out of all resemblance to its natural waviness; soft pink cheeks, accentuated by a black dotted veil; a graceful girlish figure, laced into a stiff wasp-waisted effect that made easy motions impossible; pretty little feet, pinched into high-heeled, thin-soled shoes, with old-style pointed toes. Her violet eyes almost made one forget the big picture-hat, loaded with cheap feathers; her deep dimple distracted one from a consideration of her tightly fitted jacket, elaborately trimmed with imitation astrachan; her lovely coloring blinded one to the soiled white gloves and worn-off, dusty train that dragged behind her.

"But Mamma will arrange all that!" thought Ethel comfortably, thankful that none of her school friends had seen this strangely dressed, self-sufficient cousin that had come to take Harriet's place. If she could have read the thoughts of the girl beside her, she would have hesitated between amusement and irritation. For it