. The finish was something you
never saw anything like before. It was a trimming made of white and
yellow beads. There was a little heading of white beads sewed into a
pattern, then a lacy fringe that was pale yellow beads, white inside,
each an inch long, that dangled, and every bead ended with three tiny
white ones. That went around the neck, the outside of the sleeves, and
in a pattern like a big letter V all the way around the skirt. And
there it stood--alone!

The Princess, graceful as a bird and glowing like fire, danced around
it, and touched it, and lifted the sleeves, and made the bead fringe
swing, and laughed, and talked every second. Sally, and mother, and
all of them had smiled such wide smiles for so long, their faces looked
almost as set as Sabethany's, but of course far different. Being dead
was one thing, getting ready for a wedding another.

And it looked too as if God might be a myth, for all they cared, so
long as the Princess could make the wedding dress stand alone, and talk
a blue streak of things that pleased them. It was not put on either,
for there stood the dress, shimmering like the inside of a pearl-lined
shell, white as a lily, and the tinkly gold fringe. No one COULD have
said enough about it, so no matter what the Princess said, it had to be
all right. She kept straight on showing all of them how lovely it was,
exactly as if they hadn't seen it before, and she had to make them
understand about it, as if she felt afraid they might have missed some
elegant touch she had seen.

"Do look how the lace falls when I raise this sleeve! Oh how will you
wear this and think of a man enough to say the right words in the right
place?"

Mother laughed, and so did all of them.

"Do please show me the rest," begged the Princess. "I know there are
slippers and a bonnet!"

Sally just oozed pride. She untied the strings and pushed the
prettiest striped bag from a lovely pink bandbox and took out a dear
little gray bonnet with white ribbons, and the yellow bead fringe, and
a bunch of white roses with a few green leaves. These she touched
softly, "I'm not quite sure about the leaves," she said.

The Princess had the bonnet, turning and tilting it.

"Perfect!" she cried. "Quite perfect! You need that touch of colour,
and it blends with everything. How I envy you! Oh why doesn't some
one ask me, so I can have things like these? I think your brother is a
genius. I'm going to ride to