and held them down.

"Implicit obedience, remember! I like you better as you are. It's such
pretty hair that it's a sin to hide it away in that tight little knot.
Why shouldn't you look nice if you can?"

That began it, and we had quite a solemn discussion, something like
this--

Rachel, solemnly: "It does not matter how we look, so long as our
characters are beautiful!"

Una: "Then why was everything on the earth made so beautiful if we were
not intended to be beautiful too? How would you like it if everything
was just as useful, but looked ugly instead of pretty? When you have
the choice of being one or the other it's very ungrateful to abuse your
talent!"

"Beauty a talent! I have always looked upon it as a snare! How many a
woman's life has been spoiled by a lovely face!"

"That's the abuse of beauty, not the use!" I said, and felt quite proud
of myself, for it sounded so grand. "Of course, if you were silly and
conceited, it would spoil everything; but if you were nice, you would
have far more influence with people. I used to notice that with the
pretty girls at school, and, of course, there's mother--everyone adores
her, and feels repaid for any amount of trouble if she will just smile
and look pleased."

"Ah, your mother! But there are not many like her. You spoke of having
a choice, but in my own case, for instance, how could I--what could I
do?"

"You could look fifty thousand times nicer if you took the trouble. I
thought so the first time I saw you, and now I know it. Look in the
glass again; would you know yourself for the same girl?"

She peered at herself, and gave a pleased little smirk just like a human
being.

"It's the enjoyment lesson, and the red cheeks--but oh, I couldn't--I
really couldn't wear my hair like that! It looks so terribly as if I--I
_wanted_ to look nice!"

"Well, so you do, don't you? I do, frightfully! I'd like to be
perfectly lovely, and so charming that everyone adored me, and longed to
be with me."

"Ah, that's different," she said softly, and her eyes went shiny and she
stared straight ahead at nothing, in the way people do who are thinking
nice thoughts of their own which they don't mean you to know. "To be
loved is beautiful, but that is different from admiration. We love
people for their gifts of mind and heart, not for their appearance."
She meandered on for quite a long time, but I really forget all she
said, for I was getting tired of mora