The Other GirlsWhitney, A. D. T. (Adeline Dutton Train)
General
The Other Girls
Whitney, A. D. T. (Adeline Dutton Train)
Family life -- Fiction; Women -- Fiction
If Miss Euphrasia had not cared what she would seem like in the eyes
as well as to the heart of this brother coming home, there would
have been something wanting to her of genuine womanhood. Yet she had
gone daily about her Lord's business, thinking of that first; not
stopping to watch the graying or thinning of hairs, or the gathering
of life-lines about eyes and mouth, or studying how to replace or
smooth or disguise anything. She let her life write itself; she only
made all fair, according to the sense of true grace that was in her;
fair as she could with that which remained. She had neither
neglected, nor feverishly contrived and worried; and so at forty
three she was just what Christopher, with his Scotch second-sight,
beheld her; what she beheld herself now as she went to look at her
face in the glass, and to guess what he would think of it.
She saw a picture like this:--
Soft, large eyes, with no world-harass in them; little curves
imprinted at the corners that may be as beautiful in later age as
lip-dimples are in girlhood; a fair, broad forehead, that had never
learned to frown; lines about mouth and chin, in sweet, honest
harmony with the record of the eyes; no strain, no distortion of
consciousness grown into haggard wornness; a fine, open, contented
play of feature had wrought over all like a charm of sunshine, to
soften and brighten continually. Her hair had been golden-brown;
there was plenty of it still; it had kept so much of the gold that
it was now like a tender mist through which the light flashes and
smiles. Of all color-changes, this is the rarest.
Miss Euphrasia smiled at her own look. "It is the home-face, I
guess; Christie will know it." Smiling, she showed white edges of
perfect teeth.
"What a silly old thing I am!" she said, softly; and she blushed up
and looked prettier yet.
"Why, I _will_ not be such a fool!" she exclaimed, then, really
indignant; and sat down to read her second letter, which she had
half forgotten:--
"BRICKFIELD FARMS, (near Tillington), Maine.
"DEAR MISS EUPHRASIA,--I have not written to you
since we left Conway, because there seemed so little really to
trouble you with; but your kind letter coming the other day
made me feel as if I must have a talk with you, and perhaps
tell you something which I did not fully tell you before. We
left our address with Mr. Dill, although except you, I hardly
know of anybody from whom a letter would be likely to come.
Isn't it strange, how easily one may slip aside and drop out
of everything? We heard of this place from some people who bad
been to Sebago Lake and Pleasant Mountain, and up from there
across the country to Gorham, and so round to Conway through
the Glen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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