Book II
20. Chapter XX.
(continued)
"Wear, dearest? I thought a trunkful of things had
come from Paris last week."
"Yes, of course. I meant to say that I shan't know
WHICH to wear." She pouted a little. "I've never dined
out in London; and I don't want to be ridiculous."
He tried to enter into her perplexity. "But don't
Englishwomen dress just like everybody else in the
evening?"
"Newland! How can you ask such funny questions?
When they go to the theatre in old ball-dresses and
bare heads."
"Well, perhaps they wear new ball-dresses at home;
but at any rate Mrs. Carfry and Miss Harle won't.
They'll wear caps like my mother's--and shawls; very
soft shawls."
"Yes; but how will the other women be dressed?"
"Not as well as you, dear," he rejoined, wondering
what had suddenly developed in her Janey's morbid
interest in clothes.
She pushed back her chair with a sigh. "That's dear
of you, Newland; but it doesn't help me much."
He had an inspiration. "Why not wear your wedding-dress? That can't be wrong, can it?"
"Oh, dearest! If I only had it here! But it's gone to
Paris to be made over for next winter, and Worth
hasn't sent it back."
"Oh, well--" said Archer, getting up. "Look here--
the fog's lifting. If we made a dash for the National
Gallery we might manage to catch a glimpse of the
pictures."
The Newland Archers were on their way home, after
a three months' wedding-tour which May, in writing to
her girl friends, vaguely summarised as "blissful."
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