"I have heard your story," he said to the visitor. "I knew both Mr. Stanton and Miss Hill. The breaking off of their engagement occasioned much talk at the time. I never understood the cause till now, when I think him perfectly justified in the course he pursued. I hope, Alice, Miss Hill's experience will prove a most useful lesson to you. Lies show a mind and heart so degraded and mean that no beauty of person or polish of manner can, for any length of time, hide the deformity."
As I have before said, Mr. Saunders was most liberal in gratifying the wants of his children. He liked to see his house handsomely furnished, his table set with abundance and elegance, and his children dressed tastefully, even richly. When Alice came from school, he gave Aunt Clarissa a handsome sum of money, and requested her to replenish his daughter's wardrobe.
Wishing to outshine her companions in dress, the young miss begged for one or two articles which even Aunt Clarissa considered extravagant. Alice, however, was vain, and having been told how becoming they were to her particular style of beauty, determined in some way to obtain them. One was a richly embroidered velvet mantilla, not at all suitable for a girl in her teens, the other a love of a Paris bonnet, as she termed it, made of blue velvet and lace, with an exquisite white feather tipped with blue. The bonnet the milliner pronounced low at fifteen dollars, while the price of the mantilla was forty.
"I will have them charged," she said to herself, "and then save all my pocket-money until they're paid for."
The next Sabbath, the young girl, arrayed in a new lustrous silk, together with her bonnet and mantilla, appeared before her father to accompany him to church.
"Why, Alice! I scarcely recognized you," he said, starting back, actually dazzled by the beauty of her appearance. "Well," he added, after a moment, during which he surveyed her from head to foot with a most comical expression, "you certainly are decked out. I never saw your mother dressed so extravagantly in my life. Where did you get this, and this?" Touching with his finger the bonnet and mantilla.
"At Miles's, papa. They look rich; but they were very cheap."
"Well, I hope they are paid for. You know I don't allow a bill anywhere."
He spoke decidedly, aroused by a sudden suspicion.
"Oh, yes, sir. They are all paid for. Aunt Clarissa had the money, you know."