Part 4 (1/2)
Mrs. North looked wistfully at the pretty, eager face. She had looked forward with pleasure--somewhat tempered, it is true, by the knowledge of her meagre resources, yet still with pleasure--to the choosing of her daughter's wedding gown, with all its dainty accessories of tulle and lace. ”I had thought of a silk muslin,” she said rather faintly, ”or perhaps a cream satin--if you'd like it better, dear, and----”
”I shouldn't like either of those,” said the girl decidedly, ”and there's so much to do that it will really save time if you don't have to bother with any of that; Evelyn (it was Evelyn and Elizabeth now) says chiffon over liberty satin would be lovely if I can't afford the lace.
Of course I wouldn't buy a _cheap lace_.”
That night when Dr. North came home he tossed a handful of bills into his daughter's lap. ”For the wedding gown, Bess,” he said; ”worse luck that you want one!”
”Oh, why do you say that, you darling daddy?” murmured the girl, ”when I'm going to be so happy!” She was radiantly happy now, it appeared, and the doctor's keen eyes grew moist as he looked at her.
”Guess I was thinking about myself princ.i.p.ally,” he confessed gruffly, ”and about your mother. We're going to be lonesome; and I--don't like to think of it.”
The girl's bright face clouded. ”The boys will be at home summers,” she said, ”and I'll come back to--visit often, you know. I sha'n't be far away, daddy.” She clung to him for a minute without a word, a faint realisation of the irrevocable change so near at hand sweeping over her.
”Of course you _will_, Betsey Jane!” vociferated the doctor, affecting a vast jocularity for the purpose of concealing his feelings, which threatened to become unmanageable. ”If you don't show up in Innisfield about once in so often I'll come to Boston with my bag and give that young robber a dose that will make his hair curl.”
The next day the bride-elect journeyed to Boston carrying what appeared to her a small fortune in her little hand-bag. ”You've all been so good!” she said. ”I can just buy everything I need with all this.”
Evelyn Tripp met Elizabeth in South Station with open arms. ”How well you are looking, you _darling_!” she exclaimed effusively. ”Now if we can only keep those roses through all the shopping and dressmaking. It is so exhausting; but I've everything planned for you down to the last frill, and Madame Pryse has at last consented to make your gowns! If you _knew_ what I've been through with that woman! She simply will _not_ take a new customer; but when I mentioned the fact that you were to marry a nephew of Mrs. Mortimer Van Duser she _finally_ capitulated. I could have _embraced_ her!”
”But Sam isn't Mrs. Van Duser's nephew, Evelyn. I believe his mother was Mrs. Van Duser's second cousin.”
”Oh, well, that doesn't signify. I'm sure, I had to say something convincing, and Mrs. Van Duser was my _dernier resort_. Pryse will do anything for you now, you'll see, my dear! And, oh, Betty dear, when I was in at Altford's yesterday I just chanced upon the most _wonderful_ bargain in a lace robe, and had it sent up on approval. The most exquisite thing, and marked down from a hundred and twenty-seven dollars to--what do you think?--only eighty-nine, fifty! I was _so_ pleased; for I am sure it is _just_ what you want. I got samples, too, of the most bewitching silks for your dinner gown--you must have at least _one_, you know, a simple, pretty crepe de chine or something of the sort; and then with a little frock or two for luncheons and card parties, your tailor-made--that _must_ be _good_--and your wedding gown for evening affairs you will do nicely.”
”But, Evelyn,” interrupted Elizabeth timidly, ”I'm afraid I can't-- You know I didn't expect to buy but two dresses in Boston. Malvina Bennett is making me a black silk, and----”
Miss Tripp paused to smile and bow at a pa.s.sing acquaintance; then she turned protesting eyes upon the girl. ”You _dear_ child,” she murmured, ”you're not to worry about a _single_ thing. That's _just_ what I mean to spare you. I am determined you shall have just what you are going to _need_; and if you haven't enough money with you, I can arrange everything at Altford's without a bit of trouble; and of course you will pay Pryse _her_ bill when it is _perfectly_ convenient for _you_. She doesn't _expect_ to be paid promptly. Really, I don't believe she would have a particle of respect for a patron who insisted upon paying for a gown the minute it was finished. First-cla.s.s modistes and milliners, too, are _all_ that way; they know better than to send their bills too soon. So _that_ needn't bother you, dear; and of course Pryse _finds_ everything, which will save enormously on your outlay.”
Elizabeth felt very meek and hopelessly countrified as she laid off her wraps in Miss Tripp's rather stuffy but ornate little apartment. Mrs.
Tripp, a faded, apologetic person smelling of rice-powder and sachet, smiled vaguely upon her and murmured something about ”Evy's wonderful taste!”
One thing at least was clear to Elizabeth as she lay wide-eyed in the darkness that night, after an evening spent in the confusing examination and comparison of fas.h.i.+on-plates and samples, and that was the conviction that the ”fortune” with which she had joyfully set forth that morning had dwindled to a pitiful insufficiency before the multiplied necessities imposed upon it by Miss Tripp's undeniable taste and knowledge.
She almost wished she had chosen to do her shopping with her mother and Grandma Carroll, as she realised that she would be obliged to write home for more money. But it was too late to change her mind now; and, after all, Evelyn knew best as to what a bride about to move in polite circles in Boston would require. She went to sleep at last and dreamed of standing up to be married in a Russell-cord poplin (whatever that wonderful fabric might be) which had already done duty for fifteen years, and was ”as good as new.”
CHAPTER V
As the twenty-first day of June drew on apace, Fate, in the slim, active personality of Miss Evelyn Tripp, appeared to have taken the entire North household firmly in hand. Events marched on in orderly, if surprising sequence, beginning with the issuing of the invitations bearing the name of Boston's most expensive firm of engravers on the flap of the inner envelope.
”Every one looks for that the very first thing,” Miss Tripp had announced conclusively; ”and one simply _couldn't_ have the name of a department store or a cheap engraver!” The correct Miss Tripp shuddered at the awful picture.
”But these are so much more expensive than I had expected,” demurred Mrs. North, with a worried sigh. ”I had intended ordering them at Cooper's; they do them just as well there. Don't they sometimes leave off the name?”
Miss Tripp bestowed a pitying smile upon the questioner. ”Indeed they do, dear Mrs. North,” she replied indulgently; ”but _that_ is merely a subterfuge; one always suspects the worst when there is no name. It _pays_ to have the _best_.”
This latter undeniable dictum was found to be entirely applicable to every detail of the forthcoming festivities, and involved such a multiplicity of expensive items that Grandma Carroll was openly indignant, and her more pliant daughter reduced to a state of bewildered apathy.
”I've been wanting to say to you for a long time, Miss Phipps, that our Lizzie isn't a fas.h.i.+onable girl, and that her father is a poor man and can't afford such doings,” Mrs. Carroll protested in no uncertain tones.
”Now I can't for the life of me see why we should have an organist from Boston to play the wedding march, when Liddy Green can do it just as well, and her feelings is going to be hurt if she doesn't; and as for a florist from Newton Centre to decorate the church, the young folks in the Sunday-school would be glad to go to the woods after greens, and they'll put 'em up for nothing. It's going to cost enough, the land knows, but there's no use of piling up unnecessary expenses.”
Miss Tripp smiled winningly upon the exasperated old lady. ”_Nothing_ is too good for dear Elizabeth _now_,” she murmured, ”and you know, dear Mrs. Carroll, that a number of Boston people will be here--Mrs. Van Duser, we _hope_, and--others.”