Dressed, she could hardly breathe, but when she looked at
herself in the mirror, she trembled. Magic transformation!
Apparently the chasm between the two had been bridged in a single
instant. Helen herself was astonished and again her heart warmed
toward the girl, when a little later, she stood timidly under
Hale's scrutiny, eagerly watching his face and flushing rosy with
happiness under his brightening look. Her brother had not
exaggerated--the little girl was really beautiful. When they went
down to the dining-room, there was another surprise for Helen
Hale, for June's timidity was gone and to the wonder of the woman,
she was clothed with an impassive reserve that in herself would
have been little less than haughtiness and was astounding in a
child. She saw, too, that the change in the girl's bearing was
unconscious and that the presence of strangers had caused it. It
was plain that June's timidity sprang from her love of Hale--her
fear of not pleasing him and not pleasing her, his sister, and
plain, too, that remarkable self-poise was little June's to
command. At the table June kept her eyes fastened on Helen Hale.
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