‘What! you with your brown hair!’
‘Well, father said that I was not a very dark night. I was in black, you know, just my ordinary black silk dinner-dress. Then I had a silver half-moon over my head, and black veils round my hair, and stars all over my bodice and skirt, with a long comet right across the front. Father upset a cup of milk over me at supper, and said afterwards that it was the milky way.’
‘It is simply maddening how men will make jokes about the most important subjects,’ said Mrs. Hunt Mortimer. ‘But I have no doubt, dear, that your dress was an exceedingly effective one. Now, for my own part, I had some idea of going as the “Duchess of Devonshire.”’
‘Charming!’ cried Mrs. Beecher and Maude.
‘It is not a very difficult costume, you know. I have some old Point d’Alençon lace which has been in the family for a century. I make it the starting-point of my costume. The gown need not be very elaborate—’
‘Silk?’ asked Mrs. Beecher.
‘Well, I thought that perhaps a white-flowered brocade—’
‘Oh yes, with pearl trimming.’
‘No, no, dear, with my lace for trimming.’
‘Of course. You said so.’