Miss Burleigh followed. Bessie, with a rather
unworthy distrust, refused to advance beyond the doorway; but, looking
in, she beheld clouds upon clouds of blue and white puffery, tulle and
tarletan, and shining breadths of silk of the same delicate hues, with
fans, gloves, bows, wreaths, shoes, ribbons, sashes, laces--a portentous
confusion. After a few seconds of disturbed contemplation, during which
she was lending an ear to the remote shrieks of that darling boy, she
said--and surely it was provoking!--"The half would be better than the
whole. I am sorry for you, Mrs. Betts, if you are to have all those
works of art on your mind till they are worn out."
"Indeed, miss, if you don't show more feeling, my mind will give way,"
retorted Mrs. Betts. "It is the first time in my long experience that
ever a young lady so set me at defiance as to refuse to try on new
dresses. And all one's credit at stake upon her appearance! In a great
house like Brentwood, too!"
Those piercing cries continued to rise higher and higher. Miss Jocund,
with a vexed exclamation, dropped some piece of finery on which she was
beginning to dilate, and vanished by another door. In a minute the noise
was redoubled with a passionate intensity. Bessie's eyes filled; she
knew that old-fashioned discipline was being administered, and her heart
ached dreadfully. She even offered to rush to the rescue, but Mrs. Betts
intercepted her with a stern "Better let me do up your hair, miss,"
while Mrs.
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