Could it be
that the most elegant fashion ever invented had been discarded by
Paris? Or was this lovely creature of surpassing elegance, a law unto
herself?
Her skirt was full but straight and did not disguise the lines of
her graceful figure; above her small waist it fitted as closely as a
riding habit. She was even more _becomingly_ dressed than any
woman in the room. Mrs. Abbott, who was given to primitive sounds,
snorted. Maria Ballinger, whose finely developed figure might as well
have been the trunk of a tree, sniffed. Her sister Sally almost
danced with excitement, and even Miss Hathaway straightened her
fichu. Mrs. Ballinger, who had been the belle of Richmond and was
still adjudged the handsomest woman in San Francisco, lifted the
eyebrows to which sonnets had been written with an air of haughty
resignation; but made up her mind to abate her scorn of the North and
order her gowns from New York hereafter.
But the San Franciscans on the whole were an amiable people and they
were sometimes conscious of their isolation; in a few moments they
felt a pleasant titillation of the nerves, as if the great world they
might never see again had sent them one of her most precious gifts.
They all met her in the course of the afternoon. She was sweet and
gracious, but although there was not a hint of embarrassment she made
no attempt to shine, and they liked her the better for that.
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