ble chewing!"

"Never mind; I'll get to work with her. I'll straighten her out all I
can, dearie; don't worry." Mrs. Adams patted her daughter's shoulder
encouragingly. "Now YOU can't do another thing, and if you don't run and
begin dressing you won't be ready. It'll only take me a minute to dress,
myself, and I'll be down long before you will. Run, darling! I'll look
after everything."

Alice nodded vaguely, went up to her room, and, after only a moment with
her mirror, brought from her closet the dress of white organdie she
had worn the night when she met Russell for the first time. She laid it
carefully upon her bed, and began to make ready to put it on. Her mother
came in, half an hour later, to "fasten" her.

"I'M all dressed," Mrs. Adams said, briskly. "Of course it doesn't
matter. He won't know what the rest of us even look like: How could he?
I know I'm an old SIGHT, but all I want is to look respectable. Do I?"

"You look like the best woman in the world; that's all!" Alice said,
with a little gulp.

Her mother laughed and gave her a final scrutiny. "You might use just
a tiny bit more colour, dearie--I'm afraid the excitement's made you a
little pale. And you MUST brighten up! There's sort of a look in your
eyes as if you'd got in a trance and couldn't get out. You've had it all
day. I must run: your father wants me to help him with his studs. Walter
hasn't come yet, but I'll look after him; don't worry, And you better
HURRY, dearie, if you're going to take any time fixing the flowers on
the table."

She departed, while Alice sat at the mirror again, to follow her advice
concerning a "tiny bit more colour." Before she had finished, her father
knocked at the door, and, when she responded, came in. He was dressed
in the clothes his wife had pressed; but he had lost substantially in
weight since they were made for him; no one would have thought that they
had been pressed. They hung from him voluminously, seeming to be the
clothes of a larger man.

"Your mother's gone downstairs," he said, in a voice of distress.

"One of the buttonholes in my shirt is too large and I can't keep the
dang thing fastened. _I_ don't know what to do about it! I only got one
other white shirt, and it's kind of ruined: I tried it before I did this
one. Do you s'pose you could do anything?"

"I'll see," she said.

"My collar's got a frayed edge," he complained, as she examined his
troublesome shirt. "It's a good deal like wear