d, trying to
speak calmly; "but--Leslie, I can't bear to think of you dancing; it's
not nice. It's too--too intimate! My little flower of a girl!"

"Oh, but we have to dance, Cloudy; that's ridiculous! And you aren't
used to dances, or you wouldn't say so. Can't you trust me to be
perfectly nice?"

Julia Cloud shuddered, and went to the head of the stairs to answer a
question Allison was calling up to her; and, when, she came back, she
said no more about it. The pain was too great, and she felt too
bewildered for argument. Leslie was enveloped in rose-colored tulle,
with touches of silver, and looked like a young goddess with straps of
silver over her slim shoulders and a thread of pearls about her
throat. The white neck and back that the wisp of rose-color made no
attempt to conceal were very beautiful and quite childish, but they
shocked the sweet soul of Julia Cloud inexpressibly. She stood aghast
when Leslie whirled upon her and demanded to know how she liked the
gown.

"O my dear!" gasped her aunt. "You're not going out before
people--_men_--all undressed like that!"

Leslie gave her one glance of hurt dismay, whirled back to her glass,
and examined herself critically.

"Why, Cloudy!" Her voice was almost trembling, and her cheeks were
rosier than the tulle with disappointment. "Why, Cloudy, I thought it
was lovely! It's just like everybody's else. I thought you would think
I looked _nice_!" The child drooped, and Julia Cloud went up to her
gently.

"It is beautiful, darling, and you are--exquisite! But, dear! It seems
terrible for my little girl to go among young men so sort of nakedly.
I'm sure if you understood life better, you wouldn't do it. You are
tempting men to wrong thoughts, undressed that way, and you are
putting on common view the intimate loveliness of the body God gave
you to keep holy and pure. It is the way cheap women have of making
many men love them in a careless, physical way. I don't know how to
tell you, but it seems terrible to me. If you were my own little girl,
I never, _never_ would be willing to have you go out that way."

"You've said enough!" almost screamed Leslie with a sudden frenzy of
rage, shame, and disappointment. "I feel as if I never could look
anybody in the face again!" And with a cry she flung herself into the
jumble of bright garments on her bed, and wept as if her heart would
break. Julia Cloud stood over her in consternation, and tried to
soothe her; but nothin