"What impudence! She thanks me for my offer, but finds it quite impossible to accept. And her note is worded as if written to an equal!" cried Roma angrily, as she tossed Liane\'s answer to her mother.
Mrs. Clarke examined it somewhat curiously, commenting on the neatness and correctness of the writing.
"She has made good use of her limited opportunities for education," she said.
"But, mamma, the idea of her refusing my offer, to remain with Miss Bray at three dollars a week."
"Perhaps there is a little pride mixed up with her position. She may consider her present place more genteel, my dear."
"I really do not see any difference to speak of. Poor people are all alike to me," Roma cried scornfully. "As for Liane Lester, I should like to shake her! I suppose her pretty face has quite turned her head with vanity! Why, mamma, she[Pg 108] and those other sewing girls at Miss Bray\'s have even sent their pictures to the Beauty Show."
"The competition was free to all, my dear, and poverty is no bar to beauty. I have seen some of the prettiest faces in the world among working girls. But still, I do not suppose any of Miss Bray\'s employees can compete with you in looks," returned Mrs. Clarke, with a complacent glance at her handsome daughter.
"Thank you, mamma, but you haven\'t seen this Lester girl, have you? She is really quite out of the ordinary, with the most classic features, while I—well, I confess my features are the weak point in my beauty. I don\'t see why I didn\'t inherit your regular features!" complained Roma.
"You do not resemble me, but you are not lacking in beauty, dear. I suppose you must be more like your father\'s family, though I never saw any of them. But don\'t begin to worry, darling, lest you should lose the prize. I feel sure of your success," soothed the gentle lady.
"But, mamma, there is Jesse, who will be sure to vote against me for spite, and I\'m afraid that papa is the only one of the judges I can count upon."
"You cannot count upon him, Roma, because he[Pg 109] has declined to serve, fearing to be accused of partiality if he votes for you."
"Then I shall have to go entirely on my own merits," Roma returned, with pretended carelessness, but at heart she was furious at her father\'s defection, only she knew it was useless to protest against his decision. She had learned long ago that she could not "wind him around her little finger," as she could her adoring mother.
Again her hopes recurred to Jesse Devereaux. She must make every effort to lure him back.
Her mother\'s patient maid grew very tired dressing Miss Roma for the show when the night came.
"She was as fussy and particular as some old maid! I did up her hair three times in succession before it suited! My! But she was cross as a wet hen! I believe she would have slapped me in the face if she had dared! I hope to goodness she may fail to get the prize, though I wouldn\'t have dear Mrs. Clarke hear me say so for anything in the world! But I\'m just hoping and praying that some poor girl that needs the money may get that hundred dollars!" exclaimed the maid to her confidante, the housekeeper.
There was not one among the servants but disliked[Pg 110] the arrogant heiress, who treated them as if they were no more than the dust beneath her dainty feet. They whispered among themselves that it was strange that such a sweet, kind lady as Mrs. Clarke should have such a proud, hateful daughter.
While Roma was arraying herself in the finest of silk and lace, set off by the coveted new rubies, Liane Lester was making her simple toilet at the home of Mary Lang, with whom she had promised to attend the show.
Granny had most grudgingly given her consent to Liane\'s spending the night with Mary, since she dared not offer any violent opposition. Since Liane had threatened open rebellion to her tyranny, the old woman was somewhat cowed.
Liane put up her beautiful, curling tresses into the simplest of knots, but she did not need an elaborate coiffure for the chestnut glory of rippling, sun-flecked locks. It was a crown of beauty in itself.
She put on the crisp, white gown she had bought with Mrs. Clarke\'s gift, and Mary helped to tie the soft ribbons at her waist and neck.
"Oh, you lovely thing! You look sweet enough to eat!" she cried. "Now, then, put on the roses[Pg 111] your mysterious admirer sent you to wear, and we will be off."
Liane blushed divinely as she fastened at her waist a great bunch of heavy-headed pink roses, that had been sent to Miss Bray\'s late that afternoon, with an anonymous card that simply read:
Fair Queen Rose: Please wear these sister flowers at the Beauty Show to-night.
No name was signed, but the merry girls all declared that Liane had caught a beau at last, and that he would be sure to declare himself to-night. They persuaded her to wear the roses, though she was frightened at the very idea.
"Suppose some great, ugly ogre comes up to claim me!" she exclaimed apprehensively, as she pinned them on and set off, all in a flutter of excitement, for the town hall, clinging to Mary\'s arm, for she was quite nervous over the prospect of the evening\'s pleasure.
Now, as she passed along the lighted streets to the festive scene, and saw others, also gayly bedecked, hurrying to the same destination, she felt a thrill of pleasant participation quite new and exhilarating.
"Just see what I have missed all my life,[Pg 112] through granny\'s hardness!" she murmured plaintively to Mary, who squeezed her arm lovingly, and answered:
"Poor dear!"
The hall was already crowded with people, and the supper of the Methodist ladies was busily in progress when they entered the place that was gayly decorated with flowers and bunting, framing the pictures that lined the walls.
"Let us walk around and look at the beauties," Mary said, and, following the example of the other visitors, they mingled with the crowd and feasted their eyes on the five hundred pretty faces that were deemed worthy to compete for the prize.
They soon found out that Miss Clarke\'s portrait and the group of six sewing girls claimed more attention than any others.
But there were many eyes that turned from the pictured to the living beauty, and whispers went round that drew many eyes to Liane, wondering at her marvelous grace.
Liane had never appeared at a public function in the town before, and many of the people thought she was a stranger. Curious whispers ran from lip to lip:
"Who is the lovely girl with the pink roses?"
[Pg 113]
Roma, in her rich gown and sparkling rubies, heard the question, and bit her lips till the blood almost started.
"It is only one of the dressmaker\'s sewing girls!" she said haughtily, and started across the room to her mother, who had paused to speak to Jesse Devereaux.
He had just entered, looking pale and superbly handsome; but with his right arm in a sling, and the lady, for Roma\'s sake, resolved to forget her resentment and try to propitiate him.
"I am afraid I was too hasty that morning," she said gently. "Will you forgive me and be friends again, Jesse?"
"Gladly," he replied, for he valued her good opinion, little as he cared for her proud, overbearing daughter.
The next moment Roma, coming up to them, heard her mother exclaim, to her infinite chagrin:
"Tell me, Jesse, who is that perfectly lovely girl in the white gown with the pink roses at her waist?"
Jesse looked quickly, and saw Liane again for the first time since that eventful evening on the beach, when he had saved her from insult and injury.[Pg 114] His heart gave a strangling throb of joy and love, mingled with pride in her peerless loveliness.
"You are right. She is peerless," he answered, in a deep voice, freighted with emotion. "Her name is Liane Lester."
"Impossible!" almost shrieked the lady in her surprise; but at that moment Roma confronted them, her proud face pale, her eyes gleaming, murmuring:
"Oh, Jesse, how glad I am to see you out again! No wonder you were cross with me, suffering as you were with your poor arm. But I forgive you all."
"I thank you," he replied courteously, and Roma took her station at his side quite as if she had the old right.
He was vexed, for he was anxious to cross over to Liane and ask her to have an ice with him. Then he would keep at her side all the rest of the evening. He would see her home, too, and before they parted he would tell her all his love, and ask for her hand.
With these ecstatic anticipations in his mind, it was cruel torture to be kept away from her against his will by the two ladies, and, worst of[Pg 115] all, with an air as if they had a right to monopolize him all the evening.
In desperation he asked them to take an ice with him, vowing to himself he would escape directly afterward.
But Roma was thirsty that evening, it seemed. She took two ices, and trifled over them, her mother waiting patiently, while Jesse, outwardly cool and courteous, inwardly cursed his untoward fate, for he saw other men seeking introductions to Liane, and loading her with attentions, carried away by the charm of her beauty.
Still he could not shake off Roma without absolute rudeness, for she clung to his arm persistently, though it was near the hour for the announcement of the award of the evenin............