Here E. E. broke into one of her aggravating titters; but when I gave her a look she choked off, and says she:
"It means low necks and short sleeves."
"Low necks and short sleeves! Why didn't they say so, then? What has any Dick or Lottie got to do with it? But it's no use; I won't wear anything of the kind. Those who want to have a shoulder-strap for a sleeve, and their dresses too short at one end and too long at the other, can; I won't—there!"
"Oh! you are privileged; genius always is," says E. E.
"That is, genius is privileged to be decent in Washington. Well, I'm glad of that," says I. "Some young ladies may like to go about with bare arms and shoulders—let them. I won't!"
XXXVIII.
RECEPTION OF THE JAPANESE.
WELL, SISTERS, that afternoon the distinguished party mentioned in the papers got out of a carriage, under that square roof in front of the White House steps, and walked with slow, stately steps into the ante-room that I told you of. One of them—a tall, imperial-looking person—was robed in a flowing pink silk, just a little open at the throat, where it was finished off with white lace with a snow-flake figure on it. A long curl fell down this lady's left shoulder, and there was a good deal of frizzing about the lofty forehead, and any amount of puffs back of that.
The other lady—who naturally kept a little in the background—wore white satin, cut to order about the neck and shoulders, and a lot of white stones on her bosom and in her hair, that shone like fire in a dark night.