"For the last few years, I admit," she conceded with a somewhat
shaken dignity, "I admit that I have had recourse to what they
call 'puffs'--you know what I mean? Made of my own hair, of
course--"

"Made of your own imagination!" Isabelle amended, in her own
heart. But she only gave the old lady a somewhat disquieting smile
as she picked up the tumbled black fan and led the way down to
dinner.




CHAPTER III


Nina was duly dressed for the tea-party the next day, and went to
show herself to her mother while Harriet dressed. The young girl
really did look her best in the filmy white with its severely
plain ruffles, and with a wide white hat on her thick, smoothly
dressed hair. Miss Field, too, although she was very pale to-day,
looked "simply gorgeous," as Isabelle expressed it, when she saw
them off in the car, although Harriet's gown was not new, and the
little flowered hat she had crushed down upon her splendid hair
had been Isabelle's own a season ago. Harriet was in no holiday
mood; she felt herself in a false position; this was to be one of
the times when she paid high for all the beauty and luxury of her
life.