cut herself short when she saw Maria.

"Maria Edgham," said she, "what on earth--"

Maria took her place at the table. "Those gems look delicious," she
observed. But Aunt Maria was not to be diverted.

"I don't want to hear anything about gems," said she. "They are good
enough, I guess. I always could make gems, but what I want to know is
if you have gone clean daft."

"I don't think so," replied Maria, laughing.

But Aunt Maria continued to stare at her with an expression of almost
horror.

"What under the sun have you got your hair done up that way for?"
said she.

Maria repeated what she had told Evelyn.

"Stuff!" said Aunt Maria. "It will make the hair grow farther back
straining it off your forehead that way, I can tell you that. You
don't use common-sense, and as for your headache, I guess the hair
didn't make it ache. It's the first I've heard of it. You look like a
fright, I can tell you that."

"Well, I can't help it," said Maria. "I shall have to behave well to
make up."

"Maria Edgham, you don't mean to say you are going to school looking
as you do now!"

Maria laughed, and buttered a gem.

"You look old enough to be your own grandmother. You have spoiled
your looks."

"Looks don't amount to much," said Maria.

"Maria Edgham, are you crazy?"

"I hope not."

"I told sister she didn't look so pretty," said Evelyn.

"Look so pretty? She looks like a homely old maid. Your nose looks a
yard long and your chin looks peaked and your mouth looks as if you
were as ugly as sin. Your forehead is too high; it always was, and
you ought to thank the Lord that he gave you pretty hair, and enough
of it to cover up your forehead, and now you've gone and strained it
back just as tight as you can and made a knot like a tough doughnut
at the back of your head. You look like a crazy thing, I can tell you
that."

Maria said nothing. She ate her breakfast, while Aunt Maria and
Evelyn could not eat much and were all the time furtively watching
her.

Aunt Maria took Evelyn aside before the sisters left for school, and
asked her in a whisper if she thought anything was wrong with Maria,
if she had noticed anything, but Evelyn said she had not. But she and
Aunt Maria looked at each other with eyes of frightened surmise.

When Maria had her hat on she looked, if anything, worse.

"Good land!" said Aunt Maria, when she saw her. "Well, if you are set
on making a spectacle of yourself, I suppose you are."