"Then there's nothing for you to do except postpone the wedding, unless you know of some establishment where they hire out bridesmaids of all shapes and sizes on the shortest notice."
"If it were your wedding day I wouldn't talk to you so heartlessly. How can you be so unkind?"
"Pray, Maud, don't start crying. Red eyes and a red nose won't improve either your appearance or anything else. You are perfectly aware how your nose does go red on the slightest provocation."
Talk about the affection of an only sister! Mamma came in just as I felt like shaking Eveleen.
"Oh, mamma," I burst out, "Bertha Ellis has the measles, and Constance Farrer is almost sure to have them, so I shall be two bridesmaids short, and I had set my heart on having four."
Mamma was, if anything, less demonstrative in the way of sympathy even than Eveleen.
"Be so good, Maud, as not to excite yourself unnecessarily. You will have need of all your self-control before the day is over. Anything more unreasonable than your father's conduct I cannot imagine. He insists on going to the City."
At that both Eveleen and I jumped up.
"But, mamma, he's to give me away at half-past twelve!"
"That makes not the smallest difference to your father. It seems that there's some absurd foreign news which he says will turn that ridiculous City upside down, and he simply insists on going."