"Still holding on to the guard-ropes? Not yet able to strike out alone?"
"She will be able before long," was Betty's reply, as she took down her mistress's hair and coiled it up anew for the night. "A day or two ago, as I was doing her hair, she asked me: 'Whose hair is the longer, mine or Alfonsine's?'"
"Ha, ha! The backfisch!"
"And I told her that her hair was the more beautiful."
At this both laughed.
"She knows already, without any one's telling her, that she is a pretty girl," said Alfonsine. "Does she ever talk about any of the gentlemen that visit us?"
"Oh, yes, we gossip about all the men that come to the house, and she tells me her opinion of each; but there is one she never names at all, and if I happen to mention him she blushes up to her eyes."
"And do you think he is after her?" asked Alfonsine.
"He is very cautious," answered the maid, "and whenever he meets her alone he can hardly find two words to say to her. But I know what that means."
"Poor little backfisch!" murmured the other. "We'll give her a pleasant surprise, Betty. To-morrow she shall have a new gown. The dressmaker spoiled one of mine, and it will do nicely for her."