The passage reflects on the ephemeral nature of youth and beauty, emphasizing how three girls embody a freshness typically found in young women. This beauty is described as unearned and fleeting, a natural quality that cannot truly be preserved. Despite this inherent beauty, the girls are dissatisfied and seek to change their appearances to fit an unrealistic ideal, engaging in various beauty rituals like plucking and penciling their faces.

The narrator expresses a sense of understanding toward their struggles, recalling their own past attempts to conform to societal beauty standards. This shared experience highlights the pressure on young women to adhere to specific images of attractiveness, revealing a common theme of insecurity that accompanies the fleeting nature of youth.