The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Transfiguration of Miss Philura, by
Florence Morse Kingsley

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Title: The Transfiguration of Miss Philura

Author: Florence Morse Kingsley

Release Date: February 17, 2009 [EBook #28102]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRANSFIGURATION OF MISS PHILURA ***

Produced by Annie McGuire

THE TRANSFIGURATION

OF MISS PHILURA

[Illustration: Mrs. Smart's Theme was Thought Forces and the Infinite

[_See page 18_]

THE TRANSFIGURATION
OF
MISS PHILURA

_By_
FLORENCE MORSE KINGSLEY

_THIRTEENTH EDITION_
FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY
NEW YORK AND LONDON

COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY
FLORENCE M. KINGSLEY
_Registered at Stationers' Hall, London, England_
[PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA]
Hour-Glass Stories Edition. Published March, 1902

* * * * *

CHAPTER ONE

Miss Philura Rice tied her faded bonnet-strings under her faded chin
with hands that trembled a little; then she leaned forward and gazed
anxiously at the reflection which confronted her. A somewhat pinched and
wistful face it was, with large, light-lashed blue eyes, arched over
with a mere pretense at eyebrows. More than once in her twenties Miss
Philura had ventured to eke out this scanty provision of Nature with a
modicum of burned match stealthily applied in the privacy of her virgin
chamber. But the twenties, with their attendant dreams and follies, were
definitely past; just how long past no one knew exactly--Miss Philura
never informed the curious on this point.

As for the insufficient eyebrows, they symbolized, as it were, a meagre
and restricted life, vaguely acknowledged as the dispensation of an
obscurely hostile but consistent Providence; a Providence far too awful
and exalted--as well as hostile--to interest itself benignantly in so
small and neutral a personality as stared back at her from the large,
dim mirror of Cousin Maria Van Deuser's third-story back bedroom. Not
that Miss Philura ever admitted such dubious thoughts to the select
circle of her conscious reflections; more years ago than she cared to
count she had grappl