141“I might take the curling iron for my symbol,” said Katherine whimsically. “Go on with the recital.”
Gladys could not tell either from Katherine’s tone or her expression whether her frank speech had hurt her feelings or not, and she remained silent.
“Go on,” continued Katherine. “Isn’t there a way to shorten up arms that are two yards long?”
Gladys could not help smiling at the lean length of arm which Katherine held out before her, stiff as a ramrod. “No, you can’t shorten them,” she said, “but you can help making them look any longer than necessary. You generally stand with your shoulders drooped forward, and that pulls your arms down. If you’d stand up straight and throw your shoulders back your arms wouldn’t look nearly so long.”
Katherine looked at the arm and shook her head with such an air of dejection that Gladys was overcome and flung her arms around her passionately. “I won’t say another word!” she declared. “Oh, I’m a brute! Katherine dear, have I hurt your feelings?”
“Not at all,” answered Katherine calmly. “You remember I asked you to tell me what was the matter. I thank you for being so frank. I’ve worried and worried about it, but I couldn’t figure out what the matter was and nobody ever took the trouble to tell me.”
142“Oh, Gladys,” she went on, with such an under-current of wistfulness in her tone that Gladys was almost moved to tears, “do you think I’ll ever be really nice looking? That I’ll stop being a joke?”
“Of course you will!” said Gladys emphatically. “Do you know what I heard papa saying to Uncle Teddy one night? He said, ‘Wouldn’t Katherine be a stunning looking girl if she carried herself better and was well dressed?’ Did you hear that? He said ‘stunning,’ mind you. Not only ‘nice looking,’ but ‘stunning.’”
“Did he really say that?” asked Katherine in amazement. “I didn’t think anybody cared how I looked; men least of all.”
“Men notice those things a lot more than you think they do,” said Gladys with an air of worldly wisdom. “They talk about them, too, and sometimes they can tell just what’s wrong better than you can yourself.