" As for the dresses, the
Stillwaters had found one of those treasures dear to a certain
kind of woman, had found a "woman just round the corner, and not
established yet"--"I assure you, my dear, she takes a mental
picture of the most difficult dress to copy, and you'd never know
hers from the original--and SO reasonable!"
In advance came Molly Stillwater, the youngest and prettiest and
the most aggressively dressed because her position as family
beauty made it incumbent upon her to lead the way in fashion. As
soon as the greetings were over--cold, indeed, from Madam Bowker,
hysterical from Roxana--Molly gushed out: "Just as we left home,
Josh Craig came tearing in. If possible, madder than a hatter--
yes--really--" Molly was still too young to have learned to
control the mechanism of her mouth; thus, her confused syntax
seemed the result of the alarming and fascinating contortions of
her lips and tongue--"and, when we told him where we were going he
shouted out, 'Give Rita my love.'"
Margaret penetrated to the purpose to anger her against Craig. Was
not Craig intended by Mrs. Stillwater for Jessie, the eldest and
only serious one of the three? And was not his conduct, his
hanging about Margaret and his shying off from Jessie, thoroughly
up on public questions and competent to discuss them with anybody
--was not his conduct most menacing to her plans? Mrs.
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