'Yes,' said Mrs. Sutton; 'but possibly you've been getting forward with them on the quiet.'
'Tell me,' said Anna, with an air of interest; 'I've meant to ask you before: Is it the bride's place to provide all the house-linen, and that sort of thing?'
'It was in my day; but those things alter so. The bride took all the house-linen to her husband, and as many clothes for herself as would last a year; that was the rule. We used to stitch everything at home in those days—everything; and we had what we called a "bottom drawer" to store them in. As soon as a girl passed her fifteenth birthday, she began to sew for the "bottom drawer." But all those things change so, I dare say it's different now.'
'How much will it cost to buy everything, do you think?' Anna asked.
Just then Beatrice entered the room.
'Beatrice, Anna is inquiring how much it will cost to buy her trousseau, and the house-linen. What do you say?'
'Oh!' Beatrice replied, without any hesitation, 'a couple of hundred at least.'
Mrs. Sutton, reading Anna's face, smiled reassuringly. 'Nonsense, Bee! I dare say you could do it on a hundred with care, Anna.'
'Why should Anna want to do it with care?' Beatrice asked curtly.
Anna went straight across the road to her father, and asked him for a hundred pounds of her own money. She had not spoken to him, save under necessity, since the evening spent at the Suttons'.