ty bethought her of calling in the help of the said dressmaker; so
that presently there were three of them busy as bees--one with genius,
one with experience, and all with facility. The notions of the first
were quickly taken up by the other two, and, the design of the dress
being simplicity itself, Mary got all done she wanted in shorter time
than she had thought possible. The landlady sent for a cab, and Mary
was home with the improbability in more than time for Mrs. Redmain's
toilet. It was with some triumph, tempered with some trepidation, that
she carried it to her room.

There Folter was in the act of persuading her mistress of the necessity
of beginning to dress: Miss Marston, she said, knew nothing of what she
had undertaken; and, even if she arrived in time, it would be with
something too ridiculous for any lady to appear in--when Mary entered,
and was received with a cry of delight from Hesper; in proportion to
whose increasing disgust for the pink robe, was her pleasure when she
caught sight of Mary's colors, as she undid the parcel: when she lifted
the dress on her arm for a first effect, she was enraptured with
it--aerial in texture, of the hue of a smoky rose, deep, and cloudy
with overlying folds, yet diaphanous, a darkness dilute with red.

Silent as a torture-maiden, and as grim, Folter approached to try the
filmy thing, scornfully confident that the first sight of it on would
prove it unwearable. But Mary judged her scarcely in a mood to be
trusted with anything so ethereal; and begged therefore that, as the
dress had, of necessity, been in many places little more than run
together, and she knew its weak points, she might, for that evening, be
allowed the privilege of dressing Mrs. Redmain. Hesper gladly
consented; Folter left the room; Mary, now at her ease, took her place;
and presently, more to Hesper's pleasure than Mary's surprise, for she
had made and fixed in her mind the results of minute observation before
she went, it was found that the dress fitted quite sufficiently well,
and, having confined it round the waist with a cincture of thin pale
gold, she advanced to her chief anxiety--the head-dress.

For this she had chosen such a doubtful green as the sky appears
through yellowish smoke--a sad, lovely color--the fair past clouded
with the present--youth not forgotten, but filmed with age. They were
all colors of the evening, as it strives to keep its hold of the
heavens, with the night press