Poor and Proud by Oliver Optic — Read

Ten years is a long time -- long enough to change the child into a woman, / the little candy merchant into a fine lady. I suppose, therefore, that / my young friends will need to be introduced to Miss Redburn. There she / sits in the pleasant apartment in Temple Street, where the picture of / the mischievous girl still hangs, though it looks very little like the / matron at her side, for whom it was taken. She is not beautiful enough / to be the heroine of a romance, neither has she done any absurd thing; / she has only supported her mother when she had no one else to care for / her. But Katy is irresistible if she is not pretty. She still looks as / pleasant as a morning in June, and smiles sweetly when any one speaks / to her and when she speaks to any one.

I am sorry I cannot inform my young lady friends how Miss Redburn was / dressed, or how she proposed to dress, at her birthday party, which was / to come off the following week -- what silks, what laces what muslins, / and what jewels she was to wear. I can only say that she was dressed / very plainly, and that her garments were exceedingly becoming; and that / she had steadily resisted the solicitations of sundry French milliners / and dressmakers to exceed her usual simplicity at the party -- and I / cordially command her example to all young ladies.