For half an hour I hated
her, but I couldn't hold out any longer. I have never even
imagined such a person. What a pose that would be if any
actress were clever enough to avail herself of the
un-paralleled opportunities it would give her! Of course I
thought it _was_ a pose, at first--I simply couldn't believe
in her. But equally of course no woman could deceive another
woman very long at that, and she is one to conquer both
sexes. When she put her hand in mine and asked if I was
going to buy her some dresses on Broadway, I had to kiss
her.

I got very little, just enough for absolute necessity, and
gave her a letter to my woman in Paris and another to one I
could only afford occasionally, and told her to obey them
and take what they gave her. She understood and promised not
to buy what happened to strike her--this was necessary, for
she begged piteously for a rose pink satin street dress and
a yellow velvet opera cloak to wear on the boat! We had a
terrible struggle over a corset--she screamed when the
_corsetiere_ and I got her into one and slapped the poor
woman in the face. It took all my diplomacy to cover the
affair and I doubt if I could have done it, really, if
Margarita herself had not suddenly begun to cry like a
frightened baby and begged pardon so sincerely that the
woman was melted and ended by offering her sister as a maid!
The girl had the best of references, and as she must have
someone and Elise has travelled extensively and seems very
tactful, she is now (I trust) adjusting the elastic girdle
her sister finally induced Margarita to wear.

I took her to my Sixth Avenue shoe place, and she was so
ravished with a pair of pale blue satin _mules_ I got her
that she actually leaned down and kissed the clerk who was
kneeling before her! Fortunately we were in a private room
and he was the cleverest possible young Irishman, who winked
gravely at me and took it as naturally as possible--he
thought she was not responsible, you see, and assured me
that he had an aunt in the old country who was just that
way!

What a beautiful voice she has--have you ever heard it drop
a perfect minor third? But what a strange, strange wife for
Roger, of all men! I suppose she is the first thoroughly
unconventional person