Elizabeth continued her meal with an air of virtuous indignation which made her mother smile each time she looked at her. As she had done nothing absolutely wrong she did not deserve so much as a scolding, though her mother did wish she could get behind the appearance and find the real motive. She put her arm around the child when they rose from the table. “Suppose we go up and change those ribbons and that waist for something more becoming,” she whispered.
Elizabeth obediently followed, feeling reassured and not at all disturbed.
“Mother would very much like to know what was passing in that funny little mind of yours when you put on these,” said Mrs. Hollins, as she unfastened the startling bows. “You must have had some motive, I am sure. Won’t you tell mother what it was?”
“Well,” said Elizabeth, “it began when I was trying to think of something I could do to show you that I wanted to be very, very good, so you would uplift the ban that wouldn’t allow me to go to the studio. I tried to think of some holy mortification, and I couldn’t think of anything but to wear blue, which you and Kathie have always told me would make me look like a fright. I had these ribbons, but I didn’t have any waist but this old one, and I thought if I blued it very, very much it would do.”
“Didn’t the girls think you looked rather queer?” asked her mother.
“Oh yes; I expected that; it was part of the holy mortification.”
“Well, dear, if you thought it was such a righteous thing to do, and one that deserved approval, why did you hurry off to school this morning before I could see you?”
This was rather a staggering question, and Elizabeth was silent, not knowing exactly how to answer it.
“If you did what you thought was a pious act because you wanted my approval, I can’t see why you didn’t parade yourself before me the first thing in the morning, so I could get the whole benefit of it,” continued Mrs. Hollins. “’Fess up, Elizabeth. That was not the true motive. You wanted to see how you would look in blue.”
“Well, yes; I suppose that was it,” answered Elizabeth, a little shamefacedly. “But, mother, it really wasn’t in the beginning; only the more I thought about it the more I wanted to do it. I have always been crazy about blue and I thought there is the one chance of my life, so I took it.”