The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1920-10-20
Chapter. 3.
THE HAiNES FAMILY.


Self-revelation begins with a lookir 6
glass!
Most women spend a lot of time be
fore a glass-a statement that will
please most cynical minded men. Few
of us spend enough time-or, rather,
spend the time before the glass to the
best advantage. No man will agree
with me in that, l know, but never
theless, 1t is true.
As is usual with most fairly busy
women, l looked in the glass about
twice day-once in the morning
when combed my hair and pinned on
the collar to my housedress; once at
night when / took out the hairpius
before going to bed. But l never saw
myself in the mirror while performing
these mechanical motions-that Is,
looked at my reflection, tucked in
some of the wisps of hair that the hair
pins did not catch, and fixed the col
lar straight-but l never actually saw
myself.
Not until the day when all this
great change began to take place.
That day, carrying the mended cur
tains over my arm, l stopped off In
my room and deliberately walked
over to the mirror l looked-actuai-
ly looked-long and critically and I'M
personally at myself. This is what
! saw
A sparse woman with somewhat
bent shoulders, straight hair so color
less, and so without life or lustre that
it might be gray or a muddy brown
it had no real color. Fine lines ran
over the forehead, and around the
eyes. The mouth sagged; there were
coarse pores visible on the nose. TWO
deep lines were craven around the
mouth; the lips were colorless and
dropped at the corners with a suS-
fcstion of eternal disappointment
There were lines on the neck, too
especially where the tight collars
always wore on my black serge, press
ed against the skin
Whatever figure might possess,
was so lost under the ill-fitting, cheap
housedress, that no definite lines were
visible Altogether, the woman who
presented herself to me In the glass
might have been 40-might have been
80. She was so colorless that not
even her age was definite.
And this was |. two days past my
thirty-fifth birthday!
AS | turned, another image came
into the glass, Violet, entering the
room, Saw lit ttlil ldu5iSu' i'>AA
slipping up behind me, she put her
chin on my shoulder and looked in the
glass with me- Her youth and vi
talitv only made me seem older.
you've nice eyes, Aunt Enid, she
said. They look so young
| had not noticed my eyes in my
scrutiny. | looked again-yes, my eyes
were young. They were the only
remnant of my youth left-eyes of
golden brown. But whatever pleasure
! felt at discovering my one good
point, was lost in detection over the
bad ones. Violet, guessing this, laid
down her books and helped me with
the curtains.
ITS nice to be young, VIZ l said
to her She paused in her work-she
was standing on a chair slipping the
fresh curtains over their brass rods.
It's not nice to be too young she
said.
why? It's a fault soon enough
overcome" and l sighed as | said it.
We'll, it would be nice to be
year or so older" Violet urged.
Mother says I'm too young to go
out alone with Bud, and that she
doesn't want me to get any notions in
my head about him, or any one else.
And you shouldn't l always
tried to back up Esthers words.
Il don't care about the others. only
about Bud" said Violet, having care
fully arranged the clean curtains.
jumped lightly from the chair. I'll
never like any one but Bud. You may
smile if you want, and say I'm too
Young to know-but I'm not. BcsideS,'
illogically, I'm not yCung-Im nearly
IS, and I'm to graduate this June,
This suggested another subject al
once Violet hoped from topic to
topic, like a conversational bird.