But I shall study. He shall see! Not in the laboratory, of course; that is
hardly fitting now. I wouldn't go there again except for the lure of
promised beauty--can more loveliness be possible? But I do feel the
responsibility of beauty. The wisest and best will crowd about me, and
they must find my words worthy the lips that shape them and the voice that
utters. And I shall learn from their wisdom.

"There was Hypatia; she was both beautiful and learned," I found myself
confiding to a gray squirrel in the Park, and then I laughed and ran home
to make my last preparations.

Ethel arranged my hair to-day, though I could hardly yield her the delight
of its shining, long undulations. Then she did Milly's as nearly like mine
as possible, and Milly did hers. The girls wore white like me, and my aunt
was in black. The house was full of flowers; as if it had plunged into
seas of them, it dripped with an odourous rosy foam. John sent a box--the
extravagant boy!--and there were big American Beauty roses, with stems as
long as walking sticks from Pros. and Cadge. Milly had flowers, too, from
Mr. Hynes.

At first I wasn't a bit afraid, while acquaintances were dropping in one
by one--Mrs. Magoun, Mrs. Crosby, the wife of the managing clerk in
Uncle's office, Aunt Marcia--all allies.

Then there came a stir at the door, the magnetic thrill that foreruns a
Somebody. And there upon the threshold stood a tall, dashing girl,
superbly turned out; not handsome, but fine-looking, dark, decisive,
vital--a creature born to command.

I knew her at the first glance. She was the General!