Nor was Carita forgotten. She shared with Blue Bonnet in Grandmother's caresses and attention. Mrs. Clyde's warm heart went out to the slender, pale young girl, so far from her own relatives and friends.
Miss Clyde was busy serving tea, but she cast covert glances in Blue Bonnet's direction. There was something beside the "rounding out" that interested her. There was a different air, a decided improvement in her niece. What was it? Not poise--yet! It was too soon to expect that.
Blue Bonnet and Carita chatted as they drank their tea.
Miss Clyde listened attentively. Yes, there _was_ a change. Blue Bonnet was growing up. But what made such a difference? Suddenly she knew! It was Blue Bonnet's hair. It was put up.
"How long have you been putting up your hair, Blue Bonnet?" she asked.
"Not so very long, Aunt Lucinda. The girls made so much fun of hair-ribbons--the girls I go with. They thought I was much too old to wear them, and after I took them off, it was so hard to go back to them again. Don't you like it this way? The girls liked it parted. They said--they seemed to think my nose suited it."
Aunt Lucinda could not resist a smile. She hesitated before she spoke--she was eminently truthful. Much as she disliked the idea of Blue Bonnet's putting up her hair, she could not deny the becomingness of it.
"It's very pretty," she said slowly. "I don't think you need to cover your ears so completely, do you? The style is too old for you, though. You look--much older."
Blue Bonnet drew a sigh of relief. This was so mild to what she had expected. She glanced in Grandmother's direction.
There was a far-away expression in Mrs. Clyde's eyes, as if she were looking beyond Blue Bonnet--back into the shadowy past. She was: Blue Bonnet with her brown hair coiled low, curling about her neck and brow, was her mother over again--a perfect replica.
Miss Clyde noticed it, also, and when Blue Bonnet and Carita went up-stairs she spoke of it.
"How Blue Bonnet grows to resemble her mother. Do you remember, Elizabeth wore her hair that way when she first began putting it up? The child grows to be more of a Clyde every day."
"We're going out to see Chula," Blue Bonnet announced, coming back after she had put her things away.