“No; she is what you girls call an old maid.”

Marjorie was mending the elbow of her brown school dress; she wore that dress in all weathers every day, and on rainy Sundays.  Some of the girls said that she did not care enough about dress.  She forgot that she wore the same dress every day until one of the dressy little things in the primary class reminded her of the fact.  And then she laughed.

“In the Bible stories Sarah and Rebekah and Esther and Abigail are spoken of as being beautiful.”

“Does their fortune depend upon their beautiful faces?”

“Didn’t Esther’s?”

“She was chosen by the king on account of her beauty, but I think it was God who brought her into favor and tender love, as he did Daniel; and rather more depended upon her praying and fasting than upon her beautiful face.”

“Then you mean that beauty goes for a great deal with the world and not with God?”

“One of Jesse’s sons was so tall and handsome that Samuel thought surely the Lord had chosen him to be king over his people.  Do you remember what the Lord said about that?”

“Not quite.”

“He said:  ’Look not on his countenance or the height of his stature, because I have refused him; for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart!’”

“Then it does make a difference to man.”

“It seems as if it made a difference to Samuel; and the Lord declares that man is influenced by the outward appearance.  Well, now, taking it for granted from the Lord’s own words, what then?”

“Then it is rather hard not to be beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Genius makes a difference; is it rather hard not to be a genius?  Money makes a difference; is it rather hard not to be rich?  Position makes a difference; is it rather hard not to be noble?”

“I never thought about those things.  They give you advantage in the world; but beauty makes people love you.”

“What kind of beauty?”

“Lovable beauty,” confessed Marjorie, smiling, feeling that she was being cornered.

“What makes lovable beauty?”

“A lovable heart, I suppose.”

“Then I shouldn’t wonder if you might have it as well as another.  Is Clarissa Parks more loved than any one in your class?”

“Oh, no.  She is not a favorite at all.”

“Then, child, I don’t see that you are proving your assertion.”

“I know I’m not,” laughed Marjorie.  “Clarissa Parks is engaged; but so is Fanny Hunting, and Fanny is the plainest little body.  But I did begin by really believing that beautiful faces had the best of it in the world, and I was feeling rather aggrieved because somebody described me yesterday as ’that girl in the first class who is always getting up head; she is short and rather stout and wears her hair in a knot at the back of her head?’ Now wasn’t that humiliating?  Not a word about my eyes or complexion or manner!”