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MAGDALEN

IV

“YOU see, you see, dear child, what the fashions can do? How it fits you! What a tailor that is! However, it is your figure that really does it!”

Up to noon a golden light fell into the room. Everything looked neat and trim, as in a show-case. The glass and the frames of the pictures, the surface of the spinet, and the armchairs, shone with a pale gleam. Lucy was standing before the looking-glass, buttoning her new gown. The grey cloth and the English cut were beautifully becoming to her slender body. Her eyes were beaming (there is not a woman, reader, who could pass that moment with frosty calm!). The aunt shook her head, as she walked all around her and commented:

“Where are our old fashions! Where

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