"Miss Trescott? Yes; but you don't find her wearing hers to church."
"Yes, she does, very often,—in damp and cool weather. And, besides that, Agnes, there would be no sense or propriety in my trying to dress like Miss Trescott. It would not be at all suitable."
"I don't see why. You are as good as she is, any day in the week."
"I am not so sure of that," replied Letty smiling; "but, even if I were, I could not afford it. Miss Catherine's father gives her three hundred dollars a year just for her dress and spending money."
"Does he?" said Agnes. "I never should have guessed that. I am sure that I could dress better than she does, for that money. She is always as plain as a Quaker, when in church. I hardly ever saw her wear any thing but a black silk or a merino."
"Miss Catherine has some beautiful dresses," said Letty; "but both she and her mother always dress plainly in church, because they think it right. I have heard Mrs. Trescott say that she did not like to wear a new dress or bonnet to church, if she could help it. But Miss Catherine does not spend nearly all her money in dress. She buys a good many books and pictures, and spends money on her painting,—besides what she gives away. She made each of her girls in Sunday-school a new cape and hood last winter, all alike, and of new stuff. You don't know how nicely the little things look. But, as I was saying, there would be no sense in my trying to dress like Miss Trescott; and it would be wrong, besides."
"Wrong!" repeated Agnes. "Do you think it any more wrong to wear a pretty dress than an ugly one?"
"No; certainly not. But I think it is always wrong for people to spend so much in dress as to have nothing to spare for any other use. Besides, Agnes, that is not a fair way of putting it. We need not wear ugly or unbecoming things because our dresses are cheap. Pretty calicoes and delaines cost no more than ugly ones."
"But what use have you for money except for dress?" asked her aunt. "You often boast that you have no other expenses."
"Why, you know, while Sally lived I had to care for her—"