And, now, here it was in Tess's adorable attic (full of treasures discarded by departed tenants of the old Smith place) that Missy turned one of Life's milestones and met “the Duchess.”
Missy had loved to read the Bible (good stories there, and beautiful words that made you tingle solemnly); and fairy tales never old; and, almost best of all, the Anthology, full of poetry, that made you feel a strange live spirit back of the wind and a world of mysteries beyond the curtain of the sky.
The lure of letters was turned loud and seductive as the Blue Danube played on a golden flute by a boy king with his crown on!
“Mine, too. Here's a description that reminds me a little of you.”
“Yes. It's about the heroine--Phyllis. She's not pretty, but she's got a strange, underlying charm.”
Missy held her breath. She was ashamed to ask Tess to read the description of the strangely charming heroine, but Tess knew what friendship demanded, and read:
“'I am something over five-feet-two, with brown hair that hangs in rich chestnut tresses far below my waist.'”
“Oh,” put in Missy modestly, while her heart palpitated, “my hair is just mouse-coloured.”
“No,” denied Tess authoritatively, “you've got nut-brown locks. And your eyes, too, are something like Phyllis's eyes--great grey eyes with subtle depths. Only yours haven't got saucy hints in them.”
Missy wished her eyes included the saucy hints. However, she was enthralled by Tess's comparison, though incomplete. Was it possible Tess was right?
Missy wasn't vain, but she'd heard before that she had “beautiful eyes.” Perhaps Tess WAS right. Missy blushed and was silent. Just then, even had she known the proper reply to make, she couldn't have voiced it. As “the Duchess” might have phrased it, she was “naturally covered with confusion.”
But already Tess had flitted from the delightfully embarrassing theme of her friend's looks.
“Wouldn't it be grand,” she murmured dreamily, “to live in England?”
“Yes--grand,” murmured Missy in response.
“Everything's so--so baronial over there.”
Baronial!--as always, Tess had hit upon the exact word. Missy sighed again. She had always loved Cherryvale, always been loyal to it; but no one could accuse Cherryvale of being “baronial.”