“And number nineteen and twenty, they were only fourteen and thirteen when I last saw them.”
At that moment Fru Lagerlöf came in with her knitting, Anna appeared with the lamp, and Mamselle Lovisa awoke.
“Thanks, thanks, dear Jungfru Anna,” said Fru Lagerlöf. “We shall never forget this. It has been so very instructive to me and my children.”
[VI
THE BRIDAL-CROWN]
MAMSELLE LOVISA LAGERLÖF used to dress the brides. Not all the girls in the parish who married came to her to be decked, only the daughters of the best peasant families. Some years there were two or three brides, and some none at all.
Formerly, when Mårbacka was a parsonage, it had been the duty of the pastor’s womenfolk to deck the brides, especially those who were to be married in the church.
Mamselle Lovisa’s mother and maternal grandmother and great-grandmother before her had performed this same service. It was an old custom which had been handed down.
She had inherited all the old bridal trumpery which in the course of time had accumulated at Mårbacka. She had a large old cupboard, in a drawer of which were treasured long strings of glass, coral, and amber beads, a collection of tortoise-shell combs that stood up eight inches from the head, and half-round pasteboard forms, covered either with stiff white satin or hand-painted flowers, in use at the period when coifs were worn. She had also a high pasteboard bridal-crown, the points of which were covered partly with gilt paper and partly with pink-and-green taffeta. There were wreaths of artificial roses and yards on yards of green satin ribbon sewn with flowers of pink satin. In the same drawer there were Jenny-Lind-ringlets, to be fastened on so as to fall against the face, hair pins with dangle-buttons, long ear-pendants of imitation pearls, an assortment of brass brooches, bracelets, and shoe buckles set with glass rubies, amethysts, and sapphires.
In the days when these things were in vogue it was a responsible and laborious task to deck a bride. For days before the wedding the bride dresser had to sit sewing flowered satin bands round the skirt and sleeves of the wedding dress. Sometimes the crown had to have fresh gilt paper and there were paper flowers to be made, and all the brass things had to be polished till they shone like gold.