Brown was Maggie Oliphant's color.
It harmonized with the soft tints of her delicately rounded face, with
the rich color in her hair, with the light in her eyes. It added to
all these charms, softening them, giving to them a more perfect
luster.
"Oh, Maggie!" said Nancy, clasping her hands, "you ought always to be
dressed as you are now."
Maggie dropped her arms suddenly to her sides. The jacket, a little
too large for her, slid off her shoulders and lay in a heap on the
floor.
"What?" she said suddenly. "Am I never to show my true and real self?
Am I always to be disguised in sham beauty and sham goodness? Oh,
Nancy, Nancy! if there is a creature I hate-- I hate-- her name is
Maggie Oliphant!"
Nancy picked up the sealskin jacket and put it back into the wardrobe.
"I am sorry you went to the auction, Maggie," she repeated, "and I'm
sorry still to find you bought poor Polly Singleton's sealskin. Well,
it's done now, and we have to consider how to get you out of this
scrape.
There's no time for you to indulge in that morbid talk of yours
to-day, Maggie, darling. Let us consider what's best to be done."
"Nothing," retorted Maggie. "I shall simply go to Miss Heath and Miss
Eccleston and tell them the truth. There's nothing else to be done.
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