"Never. They look much better without—besides, small waists are going out of fashion."
"But ... Ellen ... it ain't seemly—to show the natural shape of your body as you're doing."
"I've been told my figure's a very good one."
"And whoever dared make such a remark to you?"
"It was a compliment."
"I don't call it any compliment to say such things to a young girl. Besides, what right have you to go showing what you was meant to hide?"
"I'm not showing anything I was meant to hide. My figure isn't nearly so pronounced as yours—if I had your figure, I couldn't wear this sort of frock."
"My figure is as God made it"—which it certainly was not—"and I was brought up to be the shape of a woman, in proper stays, and not the shape of a heathen statue. I'd be ashamed for any of the folk around here to see you like that—and if Arthur Alce, or any other man, came in, I'd either have to send you out or wrap the table-cover round you."
Ellen took refuge in a haughty silence, and Joanna began to feel uneasy and depressed. She thought that Ellen was "fast." Was this what she had learned at school—to flout the standards of her home?