Now there's Mrs.
Vanderhoff; she never is really dressed up, but I have not yet seen her
when she was not well dressed for the occasion."
"Faith, if you get to moralizing I shall go distracted! Where _did_ we
put our jeweled hat pins? I've looked and looked, and--oh, there they
are right under my nose. Goodness! is that a rap?--Ah, is it you, Miss
Bess? Come right in. How fine you look in your shore clothes!"
"Shore clothes? That's good! Country people talk about store clothes
at home, but I never heard of shore clothes, before."
"Well, it's my invention--an inspiration of the moment. I'll make you
a present of it. Do you know, Faith, we'll have to buy some new
handkerchiefs, or have ours laundered in some way. I never used so
many in my life."
"You might do as the Carrollton girls, from Chicago, did when they were
abroad, last year," remarked Bess with a laugh. "There were so many of
them that the laundry bills were dreadful, so they concluded to wash
out their own handkerchiefs. Of course they had no way of ironing
them, so, while they were still very wet, they would plaster them up
against the window-panes in the sun, to dry. They said the embroidered
ones would come out beautifully, just as if nicely pressed on the wrong
side. It got so they would look at the window panes the first thing,
when they reached a hotel, or pension, to see if they were large enough
for drying-boards. And when they visited the Tuileries, as they all
stood in silence, gazing at the great fountain, the lovely flowers, and
the lawn of velvet, Minnie suddenly broke out, 'What a beautiful place
to dry our handkerchiefs, girls!'"
"How ridiculous!" cried Faith.
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