Her hair was brushed severely back from her candid forehead, and though her figure had grown somewhat heavier and less girlish in line, she still wore her plain black dress and white collar with an incomparable distinction.

Through all the hardship and suffering of the last three years she had kept her look of bright intelligence, of radiant energy.

In dress and manner she was the successful woman of business, but she was the woman of business with something added.

Though she spoke in a matter-of-fact tone, her voice had a vibrating quality; though she wore only the plainest clothes, her grace, her good-breeding, her indefinable charm, softened the severity.
"Mrs.Pletheridge is uncertain about this gown," explained Madame, "but I tell her that it suits her to perfection, as well as if it had been designed for her by Worth.

Do you not agree with me, Mrs.Carr?
You have, as I said to her, the true eye of the artist." Without changing her position or moving a step into the room, Gabriella attentively regarded the gown and the wearer.