when she started
for school, and I thought for the first time that there was a little
resemblance to the Wheelers."

Grandmother Stark sniffed, but she looked gratified. "I have been
noticing it for some time," said she, "but as for looking like the
Wheelers, I thought this morning for a minute that I actually saw my
poor dear husband looking at me out of that blessed child's eyes."

Grandmother Wheeler smiled her little, aggravating, curved, pink smile.

But even Mrs. Diantha began to notice the change for the better in
Amelia. She, however, attributed it to an increase of appetite and a
system of deep breathing which she had herself taken up and enjoined
Amelia to follow. Amelia was following Lily Jennings instead, but that
her mother did not know. Still, she was gratified to see Amelia's little
sallow cheeks taking on pretty curves and a soft bloom, and she was more
inclined to listen when Grandmother Wheeler ventured to approach the
subject of Amelia's attire.

"Amelia would not be so bad-looking if she were better dressed,
Diantha," said she.

Diantha lifted her chin, but she paid heed. "Why, does not Amelia dress
perfectly well, mother?" she inquired.

"She dresses well enough, but she needs more ribbons and ruffles."

"I do not approve of so many ribbons and ruffles," said Mrs. Diantha.
"Amelia has perfectly neat, fresh black or brown ribbons for her hair,
and ruffles are not sanitary."

"Ruffles are pretty," said Grandmother Wheeler, "and blue and pink are
pretty colors. Now, that Jennings girl looks like a little picture."

But that last speech of Grandmother Wheeler's undid all the previous
good. Mrs. Diantha had an unacknowledged--even to herself--disapproval
of Mrs. Jennings which dated far back in the past, for a reason which
was quite unworthy of her and of her strong mind. When she and Lily's
mother had been girls, she had seen Mrs. Jennings look like a picture,
and had been perfectly well aware that she herself fell far short of
an artist's ideal. Perhaps if Mrs. Stark had believed in ruffles and
ribbons, her daughter might have had a different mind when Grandmother
Wheeler had finished her little speech.

As it was, Mrs. Diantha surveyed her small, pretty mother-in-law with
dignified serenity, which savored only delicately of a snub. "I do not
myself approve of the way in which Mrs. Jennings dresses her daughter,"
said she, "and I do not consider that the child presents to a practical
observ