Think of it! Sarah and I used to go buggy-riding once on
a time. And I guess she had her three pairs of shoes, too. Can you beat
it?"

In her bedroom Saxon completed her dressing, for an instant stepping
upon a chair so as to glimpse critically in the small wall-mirror
the hang of her ready-made linen skirt. This, and the jacket, she had
altered to fit, and she had double-stitched the seams to achieve the
coveted tailored effect. Still on the chair, all in the moment of quick
clear-seeing, she drew the skirt tightly back and raised it. The sight
was good to her, nor did she under-appraise the lines of the slender
ankle above the low tan tie nor did she under-appraise the delicate
yet mature swell of calf outlined in the fresh brown of a new cotton
stocking. Down from the chair, she pinned on a firm sailor hat of white
straw with a brown ribbon around the crown that matched her ribbon belt.
She rubbed her cheeks quickly and fiercely to bring back the color Sarah
had driven out of them, and delayed a moment longer to put on her tan
lisle-thread gloves. Once, in the fashion-page of a Sunday supplement,
she had read that no lady ever put on her gloves after she left the
door.

With a resolute self-grip, as she crossed the parlor and passed the
door to Sarah's bedroom, through the thin wood of which came elephantine
moanings and low slubberings, she steeled herself to keep the color in
her cheeks and the brightness in her eyes. And so well did she succeed
that Billy never dreamed that the radiant, live young thing, tripping
lightly down the steps to him, had just come from a bout with
soul-sickening hysteria and madness.

To her, in the bright sun, Billy's blondness was startling. His cheeks,
smooth as a girl's, were touched with color. The blue eyes seemed more
cloudily blue than usual, and the crisp, sandy hair hinted more than
ever of the pale straw-gold that was not there. Never had she seen him
quite so royally young. As he smiled to greet her, with a slow white
flash of teeth from between red lips, she caught again the promise
of easement and rest. Fresh from the shattering chaos of her
sister-in-law's mind, Billy's tremendous calm was especially satisfying,
and Saxon mentally laughed to scorn the terrible temper he had charged
to himself.

She had been buggy-riding before, but always behind one horse, jaded,
and livery, in a top-buggy, heavy and dingy, such as livery stables
rent because of sturdy unbreakablenes