Elva broke away, and ran upstairs.
And then began the toil of the toilets.
Every bedchamber was occupied as a dressing room.
Col. Anglesea, under the hands of his valet, was preparing himself in his own apartment.
Le, in his little den, was dressing unassisted.
Mr. Force, in a little closet adjoining his wife’s room, was shaved and brushed and polished up by Jake, his “body servant.”
Mrs. Force, with the assistance of her maid Luce, first dressed her daughter Odalite, and seating her on her large easy chair, left her while she dressed herself.
Miss Meeke, in the children’s room, first made their toilets and then her own.
By half-past nine o’clock all the women of the family were assembled in the drawing room waiting for the gentlemen and the carriages.
The white, cold, still bride wore a trained dress of white velvet, made high in the neck and long in the sleeves, and trimmed with swansdown; a wreath of orange blossoms; a veil of white Spanish lace. A servant stood near her holding a large white fur cloak, with hood and muff, to be worn in the carriage.