"We certainly shall miss her here at the Higgledy-Piggledy," put in
Elizabeth Wright. "It doesn't seem like the same place with Mary Louise
gone. I wonder what the old ladies who still wear bonnets will do now.
There is no other milliner in Dorfield who can fashion an old-time
bonnet like our Mary Louise. She did them as though she loved them and
the old ladies for whom they were intended."
"Well, every old woman in town has had Mary Louise make her a bonnet
'exactly like Jane's and Susan's and Martha's and Matilda's'," laughed
Josie, "and they don't change their bonnets oftener than every seven
years, so we needn't worry about them just yet. Speaking of angels!
Here she is!"
Mary Louise literally danced into the shop. Ever since Danny returned
her feet seemed to have wings.
"I didn't know how miserable I had been until I had my present
happiness with which to compare my former sorrow," she had told Josie
O'Gorman shortly after Danny got back.
"You were too busy to be altogether unhappy," spake the wise Josie.
"Being poor enough to have to make one's living is not so bad as it is
cracked up to be. It was certainly a blessing in your case."
As we have said, Mary Louise danced into the shop. Then she breezed
over and kissed the three friends in turn.
"It's sad no longer to be a partner here," she said, "but it is nice to
be able to kiss all of you dear old girls. A business footing does not
permit of the familiarity of embraces between partners. I've just got
lots to tell all of you!"
"Fire away," commanded Josie, "but you must excuse me if I go on
ironing the fine linen of the wealthy."
Among the many industries the Higgledy-Piggledy Shop boasted was that
of laundering fine linen and laces. It was not known in Dorfield except
by a select few that Josie O'Gorman was a detective in high standing
with the chief, but everybody who had laces or linen too fine to trust
to the doubtful ministrations of an ordinary laundress knew that the
girl was a magician with suds and a flatiron. Josie declared washing
and ironing helped her to work out knotty problems and there was
nothing like having your arms in suds up to the elbows to give you an
insight into who did what and why.
The girls settled themselves to listen to Mary Louise's news, whatever
it was. Elizabeth Wright closed her typewriter on which she had been
copying some manuscript for a budding author; Irene Macfarlane stuck
her needle in the pin-cushion hanging from her tidy work-basket and
folded the lace collar. Only Josie went on with her work, testing her
electric iron with a professional sizzle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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