“Don’t call me country bred, Tibbie Drinker, just because you are a modish city girl.”
“And why not thy blue shalloon?”
“’T is vastly unbecoming.”
“Janice Meredith! Can’t thee let the men alone?”
“I will when they will,” airily laughed the girl.
“Do unto others—” quoted Tabitha.
“Then I will when thee sets me an example,” retorted Janice, making a deep curtsey, the absence of drapery and bodice revealing the straightness and suppleness of the slender rounded figure, which still had as much of the child as of the woman in its lines.
“Little thought they get from me,” cried Tabitha, with a toss of her head.
“‘Tell me where is fancy bred,
In the heart or in the head?’”
hummed Janice. “Of course, one does n’t think about men, Mistress Tabitha. One feels.” Which remark showed perception of a feminine truth far in advance of Miss Meredith’s years.