Page:Maud Howe - Atlanta in the South.djvu/106

 she could not compose her features to a fitting expression of melancholy. She had once said to Margaret, "With such an impossible turned-up nose, my dear, and such a fat pair of cheeks, how can I look anything but supremely jolly? Sweet seriousness is n't my line, and I know too much to try it on." Mrs. Harden bowed to the General, shook hands cordially with Colonel Lagrange, and joined Margaret.

"My dear, what a lovely gown!" exclaimed the little woman, seating herself and spreading out her own skirts complacently.

"It 's very nice of you to admire it when you have got such a pretty new dress of your own, Mrs. Harden."

"Such soft, lovely, China-ry stuff as you always manage to find! Did you ever see such a girl, Mr. Rondelet? So queer, you know, without meaning to be. I hate original people who pose for it,—if you know what I mean by that sort of thing. Margaret does n't; she believes she 's like everybody else. Don't you, deary?"

"No one else can agree with her in that belief, can they, Mrs. Harden?" said Philip.

"She 's such a mink,—not the animal, you know, but mink, singular of minx. Sly as a little fox. She pretends to work so hard, and then gets all the handsomest men in town to pose for her, and makes them fall in love with