Page:Middle Aged Love Stories (IA middleagedlove00bacorich).djvu/133

 one? It’s very sweet. You ought to wear red a great deal, you look so well in it. Did you know Professor Riggs spoke of your hat with wild enthusiasm to Mrs. Austin Sunday? He said it was wonderful what a difference a stylish hat made. Not that he meant, of course— Well, it’s lovely to be able to get what you want. Goodness knows, I wish I could.”

The other laughed. “Oh, it’s perfectly easy if you really want to,” she said, “it all depends on what you want, you know.”

For the first week she moved in a kind of exaltation. It was partly that her glass showed her a different woman: soft-eyed, with cheeks tinted from the long, restless walks through the spring that was coming on with every warm, greening day. The excitement of the letter hung over her. She pictured her announcement, Fräulein Müller’s amazed questions.