Mazie laughed: “She ain’t ready, what with her curling and her manicure set—busy ’s’a bee from fingers to toes—”
“Eris!” shouted her father, looking up at the open window, where dotted muslin curtains were blowing.
Eris peeped out, her chestnut hair dishevelled.
“Don’t wait,” she said. “I’ll walk.”
Odell gathered the reins: “G’lang!” he grunted.
For twenty minutes or more there was no sound in the House of Odell except the flutter of muslin curtains.
Under the window a lilac bush was vibrant with bumble-bees; robins ran through the grass; blue-birds drifted along the fence from post to post in soft, moth-like flight.
It was quite a while after the kitchen clock struck that light, hurried steps sounded on the stairs.
Eris stepped out on the porch, radiant and in her best.