In the matter of immediate result, it was a transition from
decoration to dress. If in any sense Hesper was well dressed
before, she was in every sense well dressed now--dressed so, that
is, as to reveal the nature, the analogies, and the associations
of her beauty: no manner of dressing can make a woman look more
beautiful than she is, though many a mode may make her look less
so.
There was one in the house, however, who was not pleased at the
change from Folter to Mary: Sepia found herself in consequence
less necessary to Hesper. Hitherto Hesper had never been
satisfied without Sepia's opinion and final approval in that
weightiest of affairs, the matter of dress; but she found in Mary
such a faculty as rendered appeal to Sepia unnecessary; for she
not only satisfied her idea of herself, and how she would choose
to look, but showed her taste as much surer than Sepia's as
Sepia's was readier than Hesper's own. Sepia was equal to the
dressing of herself--she never blundered there; but there was
little dependence to be placed upon her in dressing another. She
cared for herself, not for another; and to dress another, love is
needful--love, the only true artist--love, the only opener of
eyes. She cared nothing to minister to the comfort or
beautification of her cousin, and her displeasure did not arise
from the jealousy that is born of affection.
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