When she first issued from the discreet and decorous fastnesses of Salem society, she had never donned any dinner dress that was not as high at the throat and as long in the sleeves as the Puritan mothers ever wore to meeting.
In England she lapsed sufficiently from the rigid Salem standard to adopt a timid compromise; in Scotland we coaxed her into still further modernities, until now she is completely enfranchised.

We achieved this at considerable trouble, but do not grudge the time spent in persuasion when we see her en grande toilette.

In day dress she has always been inclined ever so little to a primness and severity that suggest old-maidishness.

In her low gown of pale grey, with all her silver hair waved softly, she is unexpectedly lovely,--her face softened, transformed, and magically 'brought out' by the whiteness of her shoulders and slender throat.

Not an ornament, not a jewel, will she wear; and she is right to keep the nunlike simplicity of style which suits her so well, and which holds its own even in the vicinity of Francesca's proud and glowing young beauty.
On this particular evening, Francesca, who wished her to look her best, had prudently hidden her eyeglasses, for which we are now trying to substitute a silver-handled lorgnette.