"Say on, aunt Helen. I can listen to anything from you. You think me overdressed. I see it in your eyes." "You have read my thought correctly, dear." "In what particular am I overdressed? Nothing could be simpler than a white illusion." "Without an abundance of pink trimming, it would be simple and becoming enough. Your dressmaker has overloaded it with ribbon; at least, so it appears to me. But, passing that let me suggest a thought touching those two heavy bracelets. One, on the exposed arm, is sufficiently attractive. Two will create the impression that you are weakly fond of ornament; and in the eyes of every one who feels this, the effect of your dress will be marred. Men and women see down into our states of feeling with wonderful quick intuitions, and read us while we are yet ignorant in regard to ourselves." Alice unclasped, with a faint sigh, one of the bracelets, and laid it on her aunt's bureau. "Is that better?" she asked. "I think so." "But the arm is so naked, aunt. It wants something, just for relief." "To me the effect would be improved if arms and neck were covered. But, as it is, if you think something required to draw attention from the bare skin, let one ornament be the most simple in your jewel box. You have a bracelet of hair, with neat mountings. Take that." Alice stood for a while pondering her aunt's suggestion. Then, with half-forced cheerfulness of tone, she answered,-- "May be you're right, I'll take the hair bracelets instead. And now, what else?" "The critic's task is never for me a pleasant one, Alice. Least pleasant when it touches one I love. If you had not asked what I thought of your appearance, I would have intruded no exceptions. I have been much in society since I was very young, and have always been an observer. Two classes of women, I notice, usually make up the staple of our social assemblages: those who consult taste in dress, and those who study effect; those who think and appreciate, and those who court admiration. By sensible people,--and we need not pay much regard to the opinion of others,--these two classes are well understood, and estimated at their real value."