Katy stood in what is commonly designated as a “brown study.” Then she looked Linda over piercingly.
“Yes, ma’am,” she said conclusively. “It’s my judgment that ye will. I think ye’ll maybe wrap the braids of ye around your head to-night, and I think ye’ll put on that frock, and I think ye’ll show Pater Morrison how your pa’s daughter can sit at the head of his table and entertain her friends. Then I think ye’ll hang it in your closet and put on your boots and breeches and go back to your old Multiflores and attind to your business, the same as before.”
“All right, Katy,” said Linda, “if you have that much faith in me I have that much faith in myself; but, old dear, I can’t tell you how I love having a pretty dress for to-night. Katy dear, the ‘Day of Jubilee’ has come. Before you go to sleep I’m coming to your room to tell you fine large secrets, that you won’t believe for a minute, but I haven’t the time to do it now.”
Then Linda raced to her room and began dressing. She let down the mop of her hair waving below her waist and looked at it despairingly.
“That dress never was made for braids down your back,” she said, glancing toward the bed where it lay shimmering in a mass of lovely colour. “I am of age to-day; for state occasions I should be a woman. What shall I do with it?”
And then she recalled Katy’s voice saying: “Braids round your head.”
“Of course,” said Linda, “that would be the thing to do. I certainly don’t need anything to add to my height; I am far too tall now.”
So she parted her hair in the middle, brushed it back, divided it in even halves, and instead of braiding it, she coiled it around her head, first one side and then the other.
She slipped into the dress and struggled with its many and intricate fastenings. Then she went to the guest room to stand before the full-length mirror there. Slowly she turned. Critically she examined herself.
“It’s a bit shorter than I would have ordered it,” she said, “but it reduces my height, it certainly gives wonderful freedom in walking, and it’s not nearly so short as I see other girls wearing.”