"Ah nevah see you so happy, Miss Laura."
"I never was so happy!" cried Laura almost hysterically. Giving the girl a push, she exclaimed impatiently: "For Heaven's sake, girl, go get something! Don't stand there looking at me. I want you to hurry."
Thus admonished, Annie ran helter-skelter in the direction of her mistress' room.
"I'll bring out all de fluffy ones first," she cried as she disappeared.
"Yes, everything!" cried Laura, who was on her knees busy laying the things neatly away in the trunk.
Presently the maid returned laden with an armful of dresses and a hat-box. The box she placed on the floor, the dresses on top of the trunk. Going out again for more, she asked:
"Yuh goin' to take dat opera cloak?"
"Yes, everything—everything!" answered Laura, breathless from the speed at which she was working.
Annie reëntered with more dresses. There seemed no end to them, each more beautiful and costly than the other. The maid put them on the sofa; then, picking up the opera cloak, she laid it out on top of the dresses in the trunk. Even the humble colored menial was spellbound by the beauty of these adjuncts of feminine loveliness.
"My, but dat's a beauty! I jest love dat crushed rosey one."