s dangers and
follies that beset a pretty girl from the time she puts up her hair until
she is safely married to the right man--or the wrong one. She had just
begun to look forward with relief to having Kate well settled in life.
Kate had been a hard one to manage. She had too much will of her own and a
pretty way of always having it. She had no deep sense of reverence for
old, staid manners and customs. Many a long lecture had Madam Schuyler
delivered to Kate upon her unseemly ways. It did not please her to think
of having to go through it all so soon again, therefore upon her usually
complacent brow there came a look of dismay.

"Why!" exclaimed the visitor, "is this the bride? How tall she looks! No!
Bless me! it isn't, is it? Yes,--Well! I'll declare. It's just Marsh! What
have you got on, child? How old you look!"

Marcia flushed. It was not pleasant to have her young womanhood
questioned, and in a tone so familiar and patronizing. She disliked the
name of "Marsh" exceedingly, especially upon the lips of this woman, a
sort of second cousin of her stepmother's. She would rather have chosen
the new frock to pass under inspection of her stepmother without
witnesses, but it was too late to turn back now. She must face it.

Though Madam Schuyler's equilibrium was a trifle disturbed, she was not
one to show it before a visitor. Instantly she recovered her balance, and
perhaps Marcia's ordeal was less trying than if there had been no third
person present.

"That looks very well, child!" she said critically with a shade of
complacence in her voice. It is true that Marcia had gone beyond orders in
purchasing and making garments unknown to her, yet the neatness and fit
could but reflect well upon her training. It did no harm for cousin Maria
to see what a child of her training could do. It was, on the whole, a very
creditable piece of work, and Madam Schuyler grew more reconciled to it as
Marcia came down toward them.

"Make it herself?" asked cousin Maria. "Why, Marsh, you did real well. My
Matilda does all her own clothes now. It's time you were learning. It's a
trifle longish to what you've been wearing them, isn't it? But you'll grow
into it, I dare say. Got your hair a new way too. I thought you were Kate
when you first started down stairs. You'll make a good-looking young lady
when you grow up; only don't be in too much hurry. Take your girlhood
while you've got it, is what I always tell Matilda."

Matilda was we