and her mother both
seemed to come to her at the same time. The old woman stood for a
moment holding the open door in her hand. "You fool!" she said, "what
are you doing there, dressed up in that way like a guy?" Then Clara
got up from her feet and stood before her mother in Jael's dress and
Jael's turban. Dalrymple thought that the dress and turban did not
become her badly. Mrs. Van Siever apparently thought otherwise. "Will
you have the goodness to tell me, miss, why you are dressed up after
that Mad Bess of Bedlam fashion?"

The reader will no doubt bear in mind that Clara had other words
of which to think besides those which were addressed to her by her
mother. Dalrymple had asked her to be his wife in the plainest
possible language, and she thought that the very plainness of the
language became him well. The very taking off of his apron, almost
as he said the words, though to himself the action had been so
distressing as almost to overcome his purpose, had in it something
to her of direct simple determination which pleased her. When he had
spoken of having had a nail driven by her right through his heart,
she had not been in the least gratified; but the taking off of the
apron, and the putting down of the palette, and the downright way in
which he had called her Clara Van Siever,--attempting to be neither
sentimental with Clara, nor polite with Miss Van Siever,--did please
her. She had often said to herself that she would never give a plain
answer to a man who did not ask her a plain question;--to a man who,
in asking this question, did not say plainly to her, "Clara Van
Siever, will you become Mrs. Jones?"--or Mrs. Smith, or Mrs. Tomkins, as
the case might be. Now Conway Dalrymple had asked her to become Mrs
Dalrymple very much after this fashion. In spite of the apparition
of her mother, all this had passed through her mind. Not the less,
however, was she obliged to answer her mother, before she could
give any reply to the other questioner. In the meantime Mrs. Dobbs
Broughton had untucked her feet.

"Mamma," said Clara, "who ever expected to see you here?"

"I daresay nobody did," said Mrs. Van Siever; "but here I am,
nevertheless."

"Madam," said Mrs. Dobbs Broughton, "you might at any rate have gone
through the ceremony of having yourself announced by the servant."

"Madam," said the old woman, attempting to mimic the tone of the
other, "I thought that on such a very particular occasion as this I
might