This is a very different proposition!
However, I suppose you girls--" meaning by this term the two ladies of
more than seventy--"won't be happy unless you have the youngster here,
so you might as well send for her, but you'd better have the length of
her visit distinctly understood."
"We might say a week," suggested Miss Eliza hesitatingly.
"Say a week, and say it emphatically," approved her brother, and trotted
off to his study, leaving the ladies to compose, with Mrs. Smith's help,
a note that would not be so cordial that Brother would forbid its being
sent, but that would nevertheless give a hint of their kindly feeling to
the forlorn child, so roughly cared for by her strange uncle.
Mary Smith went to them, and made a visit that could not be called a
success in any way. She was painfully conscious of the difference
between her clothes and the Ethels' and Dorothy's and Della's, though
why theirs seemed more desirable she could not tell, since her own were
far more elaborate. The other girls wore middy blouses constantly, even
the older girls, Helen and Margaret, while her dresses were of silk or
some other delicate material and adorned with many ruffles and much
lace.
She was conscious, too, of a difference between her manners and theirs,
and she could not understand why, in her heart, she liked theirs better,
since they were so gentle as to seem to have no spirit at all, according
to her views.
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