"It's a most stunning affair!" exclaimed Nellie, admiring with close scrutiny all the fine points in the shirring, hemstitching and accordeon plaiting. "Very airy, but pretty," was Mrs. Gibson's view. "What is it to be worn over? Oh, I see; this beautiful soft white taffeta. Well, Gabrielle, you will look a bride with that gown, I am sure." "That is one of the fine things I have gained by delay. If we had been married five weeks ago, I would not have thought of this gem." And the girls laughed, while Jim looked on in surprised delight. The details of dressmaking he was not competent to discuss. "Why does it take so many clothes to get married?" asked Jim, evidently not understanding that every event in a woman's life is a peg for more clothes. "What a strange question! How foolish, Jim!" exclaimed the women. "Don't you know that a wedding is a ceremonial affair, where all the grand formalities must be observed?" asked Nellie. "You wouldn't have us scuffle through it in old shoes and walking skirts, would you?" "Jim's notion of getting married," said Gabrielle, "is extremely primitive. For my part, I like nice things. I'm so sorry they do not appeal to Jim." Gabrielle feigned disappointment. "I should say they did appeal to me," Jim hastily assured the critics. "They are so surprising!" "Surprising! How so?" asked Nellie. "Like a sunrise, I suppose," answered Jim. "I've never seen many, but those who have rave over them. What a pity the styles change so often! Next year the net in that dress will all have to be taken off and put in place of the bead trimming on the lamp shades; the bead trimming must then be sent to Staten Island and dyed green to make it proper for hat ornamentation, a necklace or--" "Amber is the proper color for a necklace," laughed Mrs. Gibson. "Nellie cut her teeth on amber beads." Then they all laughed, and Jim saw that it was good policy to admire without attempting to suggest reforms. "And this silk gauze affair, what is this?" asked Nellie. "My! it is so light you could mail it for a cent." "That is just a cobweb I fancied," said Gabrielle, proudly, as she gently shook out the folds of a light creation. "How beautifully it fits and yet it affords such freedom!" "It's an Empire modification," remarked Nellie, who discerned the basic neck-waisted feature of the cobweb's architecture. "Lovely short sleeves--" "Bad for mosquitoes," said Jim. "Hush!" admonished Gabrielle. "We can't restrict art to such limitations." "If it really is a cobweb, the mosquitoes won't go near it," said Jim. "Perhaps the designer had that in mind when he cut down the sleeves." "What a heavy lace insertion--Valenciennes, a good part of it, isn't it, Gabrielle?" asked Mrs. Gibson. "Why, it's simply beyond words, I think." "Three deep embroidered flounces, and such frills and frills of lace! My! It's grand!" So Nellie believed and declared. Jim's imagination was not fired. "I hope I never step on it," he said.