"I call it my happiness skirt, and I wear it only when I feel happy.

To-day the winter has somehow got into my bones or up in my head, and I feel as light-hearted and reckless as if I had been having oxygen pumped into me by a special contrivance; so plainly this is the proper time for my scarlet skirt." "It is so funny that scarlet suits you so well, for you are certainly not a brunette," Mrs.Burton said, looking at Katherine in warm sisterly admiration.

"But indeed you would look charming in anything." Katherine swept her a curtsy.

"Now that is a compliment most flatteringly paid.

Really, Nellie, I don't see how you can expect me to be properly humble-minded if you say things of that sort, for you are such a dear, sincere little person that every word you speak carries conviction with it.