hough the whole
thing had riled me so it seemed as if I never should stop blushing.

"What does it mean," says I.

"We must go, Dick or Lottie," says she.

"Go--how?" says I. "Haven't they got horses and carriages in this great
city, that we must go in an outlandish thing like that?"

Here E. E. broke into one of her aggravating titters; but when I gave
her a look she choked off, and says she:

"It means low necks and short sleeves."

"Low necks and short sleeves! Why didn't they say so, then? What has any
Dick or Lottie got to do with it? But it's no use; I won't wear anything
of the kind. Those who want to have a shoulder-strap for a sleeve, and
their dresses too short at one end and too long at the other, can; I
won't--there!"

"Oh! you are privileged; genius always is," says E. E.

"That is, genius is privileged to be decent in Washington. Well, I'm
glad of that," says I. "Some young ladies may like to go about with
bare arms and shoulders--let them. I won't!"

XXXVIII.

RECEPTION OF THE JAPANESE.

Well, sisters, that afternoon the distinguished party mentioned in the
papers got out of a carriage, under that square roof in front of the
White House steps, and walked with slow, stately steps into the
ante-room that I told you of. One of them--a tall, imperial-looking
person--was robed in a flowing pink silk, just a little open at the
throat, where it was finished off with white lace with a snow-flake
figure on it. A long curl fell down this lady's left shoulder, and there
was a good deal of frizzing about the lofty forehead, and any amount of
puffs back of that.

The other lady--who naturally kept a little in the background--wore
white satin, cut to order about the neck and shoulders, and a lot of
white stones on her bosom and in her hair, that shone like fire in a
dark night.

The man at the door seemed to know us, for he said; "If it's Miss P.
Frost and her friends, walk this way."

We did walk that way, and drew up in that lemon-shaped room, which is so
blue and white that you seem to think yourself in the clouds when you go
in. Right in the centre of the room is a great big round ring of seats,
cushioned all over with blue silk; and right up from the middle of it
rose a splendid flower-pot, crowded full of flowers--white, pink, and
all sorts of colors--with great long green leaves a-streaming over the
edges, and broad, white lilies, that seemed cut out of ragged snow,
a-spreading themsel