They nodded vigorously.
“And it will spoil if you don’t hasten,” Max continued. “You said you’d be here in two hours. We set the time half an hour later; but you are late and you have just seven minutes in which to make your toilet.”
Laughing and happy, she went upstairs; and they could hear her stepping about overhead, pulling out drawers, opening doors, and making a racket in more rooms than one. When she entered the sitting room again she was only a minute late and was in evening dress.
She was in evening dress
Both boys started. For all Max had told Sydney so much, and had realized more, even he was not prepared for the grand dame who swept in upon them, bowing low to both. Her fine white skin and plump neck, freed from the stiff collar she usually wore, gave her, as with all stout women, a stateliness the boys had little suspected; and the sweeping train added to this effect. The high-piled hair, gray but waving and beautiful, her dark blue eyes that could be merry, tender, scornful, or stern, all her kind features they knew so well, took on an air that made her for an instant almost a stranger.
“In honor of my dear young men, Sydney and Max, I have dressed for dinner.”
Sydney did not know that her elegant finery, shipped from Germany, was old in style. Max knew, but didn’t care, since it was rich and becoming.
“Thank you, dear Mrs. Schmitz. Madame, dinner is served.”