'Just in time,' she remarked, and added with intense interest, 'You
have brushed back your hair. Excellent! Look, Sophia, what an
improvement! And more like Reginald than ever. Take off your hat,
child, and let us see. My dear, I was going to tell you, when I knew
you better, that those curls made you look like an organ-grinder.
Don't hush me, Sophia; I always say what I think.'

Henrietta was hurt; this, though Caroline did not know it, was a
rebuff to the mother who loved the curls; but the daughter would not
betray her sensibility, and as Rose was not present she dared to say,
'An organ-grinder with square feet.'

'Oh, you heard that, did you? Sophia said you would. Well, you must be
careful about your shoes. Men always look at a woman's feet.' She
displayed her own, elegantly arched, in lustrous stockings and very
high-heeled slippers. 'Sophia and I--Sophia's are nearly, but not
quite as good as mine--are they Sophia?--Sophia and I have always
been particular about our feet. I remember a ball, when I was a girl,
where one of my partners--he ended by marrying a ridiculously fat
woman with feet like cannon balls--insisted on calling me Cinderella
because he said nobody else could have worn my shoes. Delightful
creature! Do you remember, Sophia?'

Sophia remembered very well. He had called her Cinderella, too, for
the same reason, but as Caroline had been the first to report the
remark, Sophia had never cared to spoil her pleasure in it. And now
Caroline did not wait for a reply, Rose entering at that moment, and
her attention having to be called to the change in Henrietta's method
of doing her hair. Henrietta stiffened at once, but Rose threw, as it
were, a smile in her direction, and said, 'Yes, charming,' and helped