They were scarcely less effective. She slightly changed her fashion of
doing her hair, puffing it out less at the sides, wearing it a little
higher at the back. The change accentuated her physical resemblance to
Lady Holme. She happened to get the name of the dressmaker who made most
of the latter's gowns, and happened to give her an order that was
executed with remarkable rapidity. But all this was only the foundation
upon which she based, as it were, the structure of her delicate revenge.
That consisted in a really admirable hint--it could not be called
more--of Lady Holme's characteristic mannerisms.
Lady Holme was not an affected woman, but, like all women of the world
who are greatly admired and much talked about, she had certain little
ways of looking, moving, speaking, being quiet, certain little habits of
laughter, of gravity, that were her own property. Perhaps originally
natural to her, they had become slightly accentuated as time went on, and
many tongues and eyes admired them. That which had been unconscious had
become conscious. The faraway look came a little more abruptly, went a
little more reluctantly; than it had in the young girl's days. The
wistful smile lingered more often on the lips of the twenties than on the
lips of the teens. Few noticed any change, perhaps, but there had been a
slight change, and it made things easier for Miss Schley.
Her eye was observant although it was generally cast down.
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