"You are beautiful to-night,
Dexie. You need not fear any audience with those brilliant eyes and cherry
lips. You will win all hearts, as you have mine."
Dexie lifted her eyes in surprise, and saw a lover's face very near her
own, and before she could retreat he had pressed her to his heart, and
kissed her on both cheeks.
"For shame! look!" and she pointed to a mirror where their images were
reflected. "What would your mother say to such rudeness, sir?"
"I think she would say, 'Dexie, give Lancy one kiss for his trouble this
afternoon.' Don't you think I deserve one, my Dexie?"
But Dexie flew past him and downstairs to the parlor, where her parents and
Aunt Jennie were awaiting her.
"How do you like my looks, mamma? Am I not pretty, for once?" she asked.
"If you had behaved as well as you look I would see no cause for
complaint," said her mother coolly; "but a 'daw in borrowed feathers' is
never a pretty sight."
"But, mamma, I am going to be just as good as I look, for this evening
anyway; and I am sure, if my eyesight does not deceive me and my friends do
not flatter, that I never looked better, so I'm content," and she left the
room to put on her outside garments.
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