First of all there was the sore and swelling bitterness that she should owe such things to the kindness of the French governess, whereas finery for the occasion had been freely sent to all the other girls from "home." She very nearly turned her back upon the bed and its pretty burden.

But then the mere snowy whiteness of the muslin and freshness of the ribbons, and the burning curiosity to see herself decked therein, overcame a nature which, in the midst of its penury, had been always really possessed by a more than common hunger for sensuous beauty and seemliness.

Marcella wore it, was stormily happy in it, and kissed Mademoiselle Renier for it at night with an effusion, nay, some tears, which no one at Cliff House had ever witnessed in her before except with the accompaniments of rage and fury.
A little later her father came to see her, the first and only visit he paid to her at school.

Marcella, to whom he was by now almost a stranger, received him demurely, making no confidences, and took him over the house and gardens.

When he was about to leave her a sudden upswell of paternal sentiment made him ask her if she was happy and if she wanted anything.
"Yes!" said Marcella, her large eyes gleaming; "tell mamma I want a 'fringe.' Every other girl in the school has got one." And she pointed disdainfully to her plainly parted hair.