Edna Browning; $b or, the Leighton homestead. A novelHolmes, Mary Jane
General
Edna Browning; $b or, the Leighton homestead. A novel
Holmes, Mary Jane
American fiction -- 19th century
She had said it was doubtful whether she went to the wedding or not; in
fact she didn’t much believe she should; it would be cold and
blustering, and she should get the neuralgia, and be in the way, and
nobody would miss an old dud like her. She should of course visit Edna
once any way, in her own house; but to the wedding she shouldn’t go.
This was her decision till the receipt of a certain letter which came to
her within a few days after Edna’s departure, and which changed her
intentions at once.
“Don’t be a fool, but come. I rather want to see if you look as bad as I
do.
P. O.”
That was the letter, and it sent Aunt Jerry to the glass, where she
inspected herself for some little time, and decided that she was not so
very bad-looking, and she’d show him that she was not, too! So she wrote
to Edna that she had changed her mind and was coming to the wedding; and
she went over to Livonia, and from thence to Rochester, and having
inquired for the most fashionable dressmaker in the city, went to her at
once, and told her where she was going, and that she did not want to
disgrace her relations, and asked what she should get, and if she would
make it, and how much she would charge. The price staggered her a
little, and made her stop for a moment before committing herself, but
remembering a recent rise in stocks which had affected her, she
concluded to stand the expense, and when next she wrote to Edna she
announced that she had a new black silk, making at Mrs. Baker’s, and a
gray morning dress, velvet cloak, and black alpaca for travelling, and
that they were to be made in style, too, and she shouldn’t shame any
one. She did not add that she had indulged in a handsome set of lace and
furs, and even committed the extravagance of getting a waterfall! This
last article of fashion and luxury came near being the death of the poor
old lady, who could not make it stay on without a whole box of pins
which stuck into her head, and pulled her hair, and drove her nearly
wild as she persisted in wearing it when alone, so as to get used to the
horrid thing before going among the fashionables. The chest upstairs,
where the yellow satin and the faded wreath were lying, was visited more
than once, and the good dame in her abstraction forgot to shut the lid,
and when she went again to her Mecca, she found that Tabby had made the
chest and its contents into a nice bed and playhouse for the two fat,
pretty kittens which for three or four weeks had lived under the
woodshed floor, and only came out at intervals. The chest was locked
after this and not visited again before Aunt Jerry’s departure for Rocky
Point, with her new clothes, and trunk, and satchel. The dresses fitted
admirably, especially the silk, which was elegant in its way, and
trailed far behind the good dame, who felt more at home in her short
alpaca suit, which made her look full ten years younger than her wont,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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