Page:Keeping the Peace.pdf/54

 dren without learning to look tracked snow in the face."

Then, five minutes having passed, Edward's dear sister Ruth, who usually spent an hour at the simplest toilette, could be heard coming down the hall stair, and appeared presently at the library door, completely dressed for coasting.

Today at a costume revue on Broadway not even Ruth's comely face could down the laugh which would be provoked by her coasting costume. Her waist, laced to the size of a wasp's, made her bust and hips look enormous. Her hat of black velvet and squirrel was pulled down over her forehead and was shaped like a dice box. And her bustle, no longer the threat of a schoolgirl, but the full-fledged bustle of a mature and fashionable woman, stuck out a foot and a half behind.

It is perhaps enough to know that to Bruce Armitage she looked graceful and beautiful. His heart turned over at the sight of her.

"That's the quickest change I ever heard of," he exclaimed.

"Life's too short to waste any of it on dressing," said Ruth. "Isn't that true, mother?"

Mother said that it was, and rising, and sailing awkwardly forward, she shooed the young people before her.