.
The body of the dress was blue, trimmed with the same material in red.
The sleeves were elbow length, and she wore black mitts. But the
crowning horror, unless it was the wreath, was the string of red
wild-rose seed pods around her neck.

Kate had cut out her gown without a pattern and with no mirror to guide
her, the skirt was several inches shorter behind than in front, and a
miscalculation put the gathers chiefly in one spot.

She was not recognized at first, for her visits to Prouty had been made
at too long intervals for her to be known save by a few. Then,
quickly--"Mormon Joe's Kate!" was whispered behind hands and passed from
mouth to mouth.

The girl's eager glowing face was the one redeeming thing of her
appearance. Half way down the stairs she stopped involuntarily and
looked with an expression of wondering inquiry into the many staring
eyes focused upon herself. Then a titter, nearly inaudible at first,
grew into a general snicker throughout the room.

They were laughing at her! There was no mistake about that. Kate shrank
back as though she had been struck; while the radiance faded from her
face, and it turned as white as the wall at her back.

What was the matter? What had she done? Wasn't she all right? she asked
herself, while her heart gave a great throb of fear. She gripped the
bannister while her panic-stricken eyes sought Hughie in the crowded
office. Where was he? Did he mean to leave her alone? It seemed minutes
that she stood there, though it was only one at most.

In spite of his worldly air and social ease, Disston was only a boy
after all, with a boy's keen sensitiveness to ridicule, and this ordeal
was something outside the experience of his nineteen years. The worst he
had expected was that she would be frumpish, or old-fashioned, or
commonplace like these other women standing about, but it had not
occurred to him that she might be conspicuously grotesque.

There was a moment of uncertainty which seemed as long to the boy as it
did to Kate, and then the chivalry of his good southern blood responded
gallantly to the appeal in her eyes. His dark face was dyed with the
blood that rushed to the roots of his hair, and his forehead was damp
with the moisture of embarrassment, but he rose from his seat and went
to meet her with a welcoming smile.

"Oh, Hughie!" she gasped tremulously in gratitude and relief as she ran
rather than walked down the remaining stairs.

The grinning crowd par