Her more intimate acquaintance with this enchanting phenomenon had
begun in May, the last month of school, when she learned that Miss
Smith, her Algebra teacher, received a letter every day from an army
officer. An army officer!--and a letter every day! And she knew Miss
Smith very well, indeed! Ecstasy! Miss Smith, who looked too pretty
to know so much about Algebra, made an adorable heroine of Romance.

But she was not more adorable-looking than Aunt Isabel. Aunt Isabel
was Uncle Charlie's wife, and lived in Pleasanton; Missy was going
to Pleasanton in just three days, now, and every time she thought of
the visit, she felt delicious little tremors of anticipation. What
an experience that would be! For father and mother and grandpa and
grandma and all the other family grown-ups admitted that Uncle
Charlie's marriage to Aunt Isabel was romantic. Uncle Charlie had
been forty-three--very, very old, even older than father--and a
"confirmed bachelor" when, a year ago last summer, he had married
Aunt Isabel. Aunt Isabel was much younger, only twenty; that was
what made the marriage romantic.

Like Miss Smith, Aunt Isabel had big violet eyes and curly golden
hair. Most heroines seemed to be like that. The reflection saddened
Missy. Her own eyes were grey instead of violet, her hair straight
and mouse-coloured instead of wavy and golden.

Even La Beale Isoud was a blonde, and La Beale Isoud, as she had
recently discovered, was one of the Romantic Queens of all time. She
knew this fact on the authority of grandpa, who was enormously wise.
Grandpa said that the beauteous lady was a heroine in all languages,
and her name was spelled Iseult, and Yseult, and Isolde, and other
queer ways; but in "The Romance of King Arthur" it was spelled La