at each other every now
and then as if what they were doing was wicked, perhaps, but fearfully
enjoyable, still in two days everything was at Miss Fannie's, and it
was then I had to be awfully firm with Miss Araminta.

There are some things some women can never take in, and one is that an
old sheep should never dress lamb fashion. It was all Miss Fannie
(she's a corking-good dressmaker for a small place) and I could do to
hold Miss Araminta down when it came to colors, and the cut of her
skirt, and some trimmings she wanted to put on the waist. She thinks
she loves lavender, but Joseph's coat would have been a colorless piece
of apparel beside her dress if we finally hadn't sat on her and told
her certain things couldn't be done. She was crazy to pile on a bunch
of ancestral lace, yellow and dowdy; but we told her not much, told her
freshness and daintiness suited her style much better, and she wasn't
old enough to emphasize ancestral lace, and she blushed and gave in.
But nothing would have made her do it if Miss Fannie hadn't thought to
throw out the age-line. She caught on and agreed, and after that we
did not have a great deal of trouble.

Miss Susanna was a little crankier than I thought she was going to be,
and wanted a practical dress that she could wear anywhere at any time,
and we had to argue with her a good deal. I told her a train was the
thing for her, and I intended to walk behind her the night of the party
and keep everybody back far enough to see how grand she looked. When a
woman is sixty-six and pretty worn, short skirts for evenings are not
impressive, and, though we didn't mention age, we said finally she owed
it to her mother's memory to dress in a style suitable to the position
into which she had been born, and that settled it. She's the real
thing, Miss Susanna is. She doesn't have to play a part.

I had told Miss Fannie on the quiet that the price of making the
dresses would be doubled if she would have them ready for the 17th of
August, and they were ready. Miss Araminta and Miss Susanna thought it
was a bad example to set, as it might not be just to the other
Twickenham-Towners to pay more than they could pay, and it stuck Miss
Araminta pretty deep to hand out more than was necessary. But I told
her it was an emergency operation and that kind always came high. And
also I told them that Miss Fannie charged entirely too little for her
work, and it was poor religion to go to church on