Mona found considerable excitement and confusion prevailing upon her return, for carpenters and decorators were busy about the house; flowers and plants were being carried in from the conservatory; the caterer and his force were arranging things to their minds, in the dining-room and kitchen, and everybody, guests included, was busy and in a flutter of anticipation over the approaching festivities.
"It seems to me that you were gone a long while," Mrs. Montague curtly remarked, as Mona entered her room.
"Was I?" the young girl asked, pleasantly; then she added: "Well, two miles make quite a walk."
Mrs. Montague flushed at the remark.
She was well aware that she had been unreasonable in requiring so much, just to secure a few articles which she might have very well done without, and this thought did not add to her comfort.
She made no reply, but quietly laid out some work for Mona, whom she kept busily employed during the remainder of the day.
The young girl cheerfully performed all that was required of her, however; her interview with Ray had served to sweeten every task for that day, while she hoped that she might secure another opportunity, before it was over, for a few more words with him.
But after dinner Mrs. Montague came up stairs better-natured than she had been all day, and turning to Mona, as she entered the room, she asked:
"Have you none but mourning dresses with you? nothing white, or pretty, for evening?"
"No; my dresses are all black; the only thing I have that would be at all suitable for evening is a black net," Mona answered, wondering, with rising color, why she had asked the question.