The Sisters-In-Law by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton
page 55 of 440 (12%)
page 55 of 440 (12%)
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"Deadly. But you don't know the girls,"
"And I have told mother again and again that she should not permit you to associate with Aileen Lawton." "She can't help herself. Aileen is one of us. Besides, mother is devoted to the Judge." "But powder! None of us has ever put anything but clean cold water on her face." "You'd look a long sight better if you did. Cold cream, too. You wouldn't have any wrinkles at your age, if you weren't so damn respectable-aristocratic, you call it. It's just middle class. And as out of date as speech without slang. As for me, I'd paint my lips as Aileen does, only I don't like the taste, and they're too red, anyhow. It's much smarter to make up than not to. Times change. You don't wear hoopskirts because our magnificent Grandmother Ballinger did. You dress as smartly as the Burlingame crowd. Why does your soul turn green at make-up? All these people you look down upon because our families were rich and important in the fifties are more up-to-date than you are, although I will admit that none of them has the woman-of-the-world air of the smartest New York women --not that terribly respectable inner set in New York--Aunt Mattie's and Aunt Charlotte's--_that_ just revels in looking mid-Victorian....The newer people I've met here--their manners are just as good as ours, if not better, for, as you said just now, they don't put on airs. You do, darling. You don't know it, but you would put an English duchess to the blush, when you suddenly remember who you are--" Mrs. Abbott had resumed her seat on the cot. "If you have finished |
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