The Bacillus of Beauty: A Romance of To-dayStark, Harriet
Science
The Bacillus of Beauty: A Romance of To-day
Stark, Harriet
Beauty, Personal -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Science fiction
Will the gods smite me for my happiness? Are they jealous? Ah, well, I
have never lived until now, and if I can stay a little while like this,
I shall be satisfied; I shall be ready to die. If only beauty does not
vanish as suddenly as it came! If it did, I should kill myself.
There are disadvantages. Such a time as I'm having with my clothes!
Money to buy new is not so plenty as I could wish, though the $75 a
month that Father sends was more than enough until the change. I'm
saving to buy a microscope--a better one than those loaned to students
at the laboratory; so I have to let out and contrive--I who so hate a
needle!
And the staring admiration that is lavished on me everywhere! I suppose
I'll get used to it; but it's a new experience. I like to be looked at,
too, much as it embarrasses me. My loveliness is like a beautiful new
dress; one is delighted to have it, but terribly shy about wearing it,
at first.
Admiration! Why, the mystified music master is ready to go down on his
knees to me, the janitor and the page boys are puzzled. I wonder--I
wonder what John will say, I almost dread to think of his seeing me so;
yet it will be the greatest test. Test! I need none!
The girls in the laboratory are divided between awe and envy, and Kitty
Reid--poor Kitty! She began by being puzzled, then grew panic stricken.
The first time she noticed--I shall always remember it--was when I came
in from the college one day, still skeptical of change, yet hoping it
might be so.
"Why, you've a new way of doing your hair--no; same old pug--but
somehow--you're looking uncommon fit to-day," she said glancing up from
her drawings.
My heart leaped for joy. It was true then! It was true! But remembering
Miss Coleman, I forced myself to reply as quietly as I could:--
"My genius must be beginning to sprout."
A little later Kitty was in constant mystification.
"How do you do it?" she would demand. "What have you got? Can't you let
me into the secret? I just think you might introduce me to the fairy
godmother."
If I were to tell any one, it would be Kitty, of course. Such a dear
little red-headed angel she would make! But it would not be fair to
Prof. Darmstetter. He is not ready yet. So I can only sham ignorance
and joke with her about milk baths and cold cream and rain water. Now
that she has reached the stage of fright, I have great fun with her.
"The age of miracles has come again," she says a hundred times a day.
"I can't believe my eyes! How is it that you are growing so beautiful?
Is it witchcraft?"
"Am I better looking?" I inquire languidly. "Well, I'm glad of it. I
had an aunt who was well-favoured when she was young; it's high time I
took after her, if I'm ever going to."
"No living aunt ever looked as you do now," Kitty will mutter, shaking
her head. "I don't know what to think. I'm half afraid of you."
To tell the truth, she's more than half afraid of me, and I delight in
mystifying her all I can.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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