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And to the details she listened sympathetically, cheering Mary Lou while she inserted cuff-links into her cousin's fresh shirtwaist, and persuaded her to come down to dinner. Then Susan must leave her hot soup while she ran up to Virginia's room, for Virginia was late. "Ha! What is it?" said Virginia heavily, rousing herself from sleep.
So Miss Rosa whisked off Arethusa's shirtwaist for her, and her skirt, and even manipulated that uncompromisingly unbeautiful protection which Miss Eliza insisted was all that kept the healthy Arethusa from dying of pneumonia in the winter season, in such a very capable way that it could not possibly show; and slipped the dainty gown over the girl's ruddy head.
Then the door opened more widely and it was she, smiling out at him; but so rosy and terribly pretty that Jan felt afraid and drew back. "I thought maybe you would like to get out for some fresh air soon," he stammered. "I was just trying on the new hat I bought with the money you sent up last night and a shirtwaist and a lovely long coat. How did you get through the night?" "Fine!
She seemed still young, but poverty had marked her with unmistakable signs. The white, blue-veined hands that clung to the railing of the pew were thin; and the shirtwaist, though clean, was cheap and frayed. At last she rose from her knees and raised a tear-stained face to his, staring at him in a dumb bewilderment. "Can I do anything for you?" he said gently, "I am the rector here."
She writes to invite me to spend a Sabbath with her at my earliest convenience. I am to bring you along. I did not know you knew her. I've mentioned her so often and you never said that you were friends." "I don't know her." Elizabeth was struggling into a white shirtwaist as she talked. "I never saw her. There must be some mistake about her asking me." "No; there's the letter.
There they would sit speechless, she in a faded blue serge skirt with a crisp, washed-out shirtwaist, and an old sailor hat dark and pretty, in spite of her troubled face; he in a ready-made black serge suit, yet very much the gentleman pale and listless. Their eyes would seek out any steamer in the river below, or anything else that reminded them of other conditions.
First she exchanged her walking-skirt, her prim shirtwaist and jacket, for a rose-pink wrapper which she furtively brought out of a closet. It was a very elaborate wrapper, all fluffy lace and ruffles and bows, and it had cost Eliza a sum which she strove desperately to forget.
So fast they flew that a break in needle or thread ruined a shirtwaist; hence, never did she allow her eyes to wander, never during a day of ten to fourteen hours, while, continuously, the needles danced up and down like flashes of steel or lightning. At times it seemed as if the machine were running away from her and she had to strain her body to keep it back.
Robert was tall and thin, with an olive face and dark eyes which gave the impression of an uncomfortable penetration. She was dressed simply in a shirtwaist and a dark skirt, but Honora thought her striking looking. The grandchildren, playing on and off the porch, seemed legion, and they were besieging Susan.
There was a confused murmur of voices and the clinking of plates in the dining room, but these ceased instantly, and a hush ensued. Immediately, in the open archway into the parlour, a girl of fifteen appeared, a pretty girl with blue eyes and brown hair, a shabby but fresh little shirtwaist belted by a shabby but clean white skirt, and a napkin dangling from her hand.
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