"More novels?" said Dolly. "I'm so glad. Thank you, Miss Billy. For mother really has nothing for to-day. The one she had yesterday was very dull; she said she was 'worrying' through it. It was a story about female suffrage--as though any one could care for that!" "Care for it or not, it is sure to come," declared Miss Mackintosh. "Yes, in A.D. 5000." "Sooner, much sooner. _We_ may not see it," pursued Maud Muriel, putting up her finger impressively. "But, mark my words, our _children_ will." Miss Billy listened to this statement with the deepest interest. "Well, Maud Muriel--Miss Billy, yourself, and myself as _parents_--that certainly is a new idea!" Dolly replied. Ruth came in. At the same moment Maud Muriel turned to go; and, unconsciously, Billy made a motion as if about to follow. "Wilhelmina, you are to _stay_," said Maud, sternly, as she departed, straighter than ever. "Yes, Miss Billy, please stay," said Ruth. "I want you to go with me to see Genevieve." "Genevieve?" repeated Dolly, surprised. "Yes. She has bought another new dress for me, and this time she is going to fit it herself, she says, so that there may be no more bagging," answered Ruth, laughing. "I know she intends to _squeeze_ me up. And so I want Miss Billy to come and say it's dangerous!" Ruth was naturally what is called short-waisted; this gave her the long step which in a tall, slender woman is so enchantingly graceful. Genevieve did not appreciate grace of this sort. In her opinion Ruth's waist was too large. If she had been told that it was the waist of Greek sculpture, the statement would not have altered her criticism; she had no admiration for Greek sculpture; the few life-sized casts from antique statues which she had seen had appeared to her highly unpleasant objects. Her ideas of feminine shape were derived, in fact, from the season's fashion plates. Her own costumes were always of one unbroken tint, the same from head to foot. To men's eyes, therefore, her attire had an air of great simplicity. Women perceived at once that this unvarying effect was not obtained without much thought, and Genevieve herself would have been the last to disclaim such attention. For she believed that it was each woman's duty to dress as becomingly as was possible, because it increased her attraction; and the greater her attraction, the greater her influence. If she had been asked, "influence for what?" she would have replied unhesitatingly, "influence for good!" Her view of dress, therefore, being a serious one, she was disturbed by the entire indifference of her husband's family to the subject, both generally and in detail. She had the most sincere desire to assist them, to improve them; most of all she longed to improve Ruth (she had given up Dolly), and more than once she had denied herself something, and taken the money it would have cost, to buy a new costume for the heedless girl, who generally ruined the gifts (in her sister-in-law's