was amazing. Where Cherry had but one expensive waist, but one
beautiful gown, but two or three elaborate sets of filmy lingerie,
accumulated slowly and laundered by herself when she washed her
silk stockings, Alix, like a child, changed her fresh, simple
linen every day, jumped from one crisp tub suit to another, wore
untrimmed straw hats that she bought in the village for fifty
cents apiece. Alix apparently never considered the relation of her
clothing to her own personality; she simply chose the simple
colours and styles she liked, and aspired only to be always fresh
and trim.

So with her house. She did not have one or two priceless
tablecloths to be used on occasions with satin underlaid, and
crystal and cut-glass; her china was all used every day, and her
table linen cheap and plentiful and lavish. Meals were always
simple and hearty and delicious; but Alix had not time for fancy
touches; hated, as she frankly admitted, "all that stuffed celery
and chopped nut and halved cherry business! If soup isn't good
without whipped cream and sherry in it, it's pretty poor soup!"

Cherry had laughed at her, even years ago, for her point of view,
but sometimes she had felt it to be almost an advantage. At all
events, she had not been twenty-four hours in Alix's house without
perceiving that her sister was singularly free and unruffled,
unlike the women of her generation. Alix did not put all the time
she saved to good use, although she puttered away in the garden,
spent an hour or two each day at the piano, and was, as she
confided to Cherry, writing a novel. But she was always gay and
always fresh, and enjoyed every moment of the day.