Page:Booth Tarkington - Alice Adams.djvu/363

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ALICE ADAMS
353

pay them so much that they only work when they feel like it."

"Mama, could you ask her to wear her cap straighter? Every time she moves her head she gets it on one side, and her skirt's too long behind and too short in front—and oh, I've never seen such feet!"

Alice laughed desolately. "And she must quit that terrible chewing!"

"Never mind; I'll get to work with her. I'll straighten her out all I can, dearie; don't worry."

Mrs. Adams patted her daughter's shoulder encouragingly. "Now you can't do another thing, and if you don't run and begin dressing you won't be ready. It'll only take me a minute to dress, myself, and I'll be down long before you will. Run, darling! I'll look after everything."

Alice nodded vaguely, went up to her room, and, after only a moment with her mirror, brought from her closet the dress of white organdie she had worn the night when she met Russell for the first time. She laid it carefully upon her bed, and began to make ready to put it on. Her mother came in, half an hour later, to "fasten" her.

"I'm all dressed," Mrs. Adams said, briskly. "Of course it doesn't matter. He won't know what the