"Was not that rather like the man who hid his talent in a napkin?" asked her mother.
"Perhaps it was," said Juliet, with a faint smile; "I never thought of it somehow as a gift that might be turned to good account; but now—now, mother, I will sing in the choir and sell at the bazaar, and do whatever Mr. and Mrs. Staines want me to do."
"That is right, dear," said her mother heartily; "I am sure you will be happier if you make yourself useful to others."
"Oh, I am happier now than I deserve to be," replied Juliet, "and I dread doing anything to disturb the old order of things. But thus it must be."
Having so decided, Juliet carried out her resolve in no half-hearted fashion. She practised diligently for the church services, and proved even a greater support to the psalmody than the clergyman and his wife had anticipated.
She threw herself with zeal and energy into the plans for the bazaar, and soon became thoroughly interested in them. As a thousand important trifles occupied her attention, and her days grew busier and busier, her spirits grew increasingly bright. Her sunny, mirthful smile, and gay, defiant words reminded her mother of the Juliet of earlier days. Mrs. Tracy rejoiced in the change, and looked forward to the rapidly approaching day of the bazaar almost as gleefully as her child, not foreseeing that, like many another eagerly anticipated day, it would fail to fulfil its promise.
[CHAPTER XXIV]
THE BAZAAR
WHEN at last the day fixed for the bazaar arrived, the weather proved all that the most sanguine could have anticipated. It was brilliant without being over-warm, for a delightful breeze from the sea tempered the sun's heat. The sea was beautifully blue, and broke in crisp, white-crested waves upon the sands. Such a day could not fail to tempt visitors to St. Anne's. Fortune seemed to smile upon the undertaking that had cost so many busy hours and so much anxious preparation.
Despite the brightness of the day, Juliet's spirits were somewhat dashed, when she learned that her mother had awoke that morning with so bad a headache that she feared it would be impossible for her to be present at the opening of the bazaar.