“I lack one thing,” said Elsie, critically surveying herself in the glass. “I wish I had one of those Bonsilene roses that the florist has massed in the parlors. I’m going to ask Mrs. Mason for one.”
“I wouldn’t,” said Jenie. “I’d just take one. It would never be missed.”
“Jenie,” laughed Elsie as she placed a hand under the little maid’s chin, “I should miss it, and that would be the worst miss of all. I like to keep my fingers clean, you know.”
“Well, it ain’t like takin’ clothes and such like.”
“Not exactly; but all the same it is taking what doesn’t belong to me.”
“It’s such a little thing I wouldn’t have minded it.”
“It is the ‘littles’ that make us, Jenie. Lookout for the little foxes and the lions will keep away. Now, let me see how you look. As sweet and clean as a whistle. Let me straighten your cap. Dear me, there’s a button off your shoe. I must sew that on right away. It doesn’t look ladylike, you know, to go with the buttons off.”
Jenie laughed. “Me a lady!” she exclaimed as if the idea were preposterous.
“To be sure,” said Elsie seriously. “You can be just as much a lady in your work as Mrs. Mason in hers.”
“Humph! She’d laugh at me.”