Amnesiacs -- Fiction; New York (State) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Trials -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
Minga shook her head solemnly. "I don't know what I know," obstinately,
"only it can't be the President of the United States, you know, and it
isn't any kind of foreigner and yet--yet he seems to feel as if he were
some punkins."
"Then you do see it, too?" Sard was exultant. She grasped the arm of
the other girl. "Come on up to my room in the tower and we can talk.
Don't let Aunt Reely join us."
"Are you girls making any arrangements for the Saturday night club
dance?" demanded that lady. Miss Aurelia was fresh in a white dress
with cuffs and collar of intricate embroidery. She wore a chain of
colorless coral beads. "This dance will not be like the others 'in
sweaters and tennis shoes,'" she warned them. "Mrs. Spoyd has been
working very hard to get the young people to appear well at the dances.
Now your frock, Sard, needs certain things done to it. Mrs. Spoyd
thinks you dress too old."
"Oh, gracious!" Sard threw out her hands in impatience. "My yellow
frock is good for a year yet. Don't bother, dear," she begged.
"Now, Sard, I'm not sure," Miss Aurelia demurred. "Last time you
wore it I thought--they wear them so short now. Shouldn't you
take it up a little? But I don't know. Of course, Mrs. Spoyd
thinks--I--she--you----" Minga interfered.
"Come in and look at my pretty little robe," she invited sweetly. "Such
a jazzy little affair! Straight off the Avenue."
Minga held up a small bunch of color. "Perky, isn't it?" she wanted to
know. "A little daring, as the lady said, but of course, if that's what
people are wearing----" Minga made a face of sweet inquiry.
The twin-petaled blue tunic with its girdle and shoulder straps of
flame color had two jeweled butterflies, one planted below Minga's
little thin chest, the other at the base of her supple back. This
confection could have been blown away with a sigh. Miss Aurelia heaved
that sigh.
"Of course, nowadays that cut under the arm is what they all wear--very
popular. Dearest," asked Miss Aurelia plaintively, "if it should grow
cold and you wanted an--er--under body or guimpe of any kind, I'm sure
I could lend you one. And you wear so little underneath----"
Minga, holding the dress close up to her, hung her dark curly head on
one side. "Rather nippy," she remarked with satisfaction. "You think it
shows too much of me? Oh, no," comforted Minga, "there's really quite
a good deal of me that doesn't show, but don't worry, Miss Aurelia,
nobody will be thinking about that. People aren't as curious about how
we're made as they used to be. We all know that we've got arms and legs
and chests and shoulders and ribs and things. It isn't interesting any
more!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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