Her dress, too, was singularly unbecoming--a big woman in a cotton blouse and a battered old hat was a spectacle to make him shudder.

Miss Templeton's blue muslin and dainty ruffles were a pleasing contrast.
"It is a woman's duty to set herself off as much as possible," he would say to the long-suffering Anna, and then he transposed a certain saying, "If you can't be handsome, be as handsome as you can;" and he would hold forth on the immorality of slovenliness.
"I daresay Miss Elizabeth Templeton would not be bad-looking if she only took a little pains with herself," he thought, as they all grouped themselves comfortably on the boulders.

After a moment's hesitation, Elizabeth placed herself beside him and begun to talk to him.

Somehow her voice pleased him.

It was not so sweet as her sister's, and there was a sort of burr in it, and when he knew her better he discovered that when she was eager or excited about anything there was a slight hesitation, as though her words tripped each other up; but with all its defects it was a voice to linger in the memory.