"It's a bad custom; better broken."
"Then what shall I get, sir?" asked Mrs. Cord with unwonted stolidity.
"You need not get anything. I will see to it myself. Only the linen and all that, Mrs. Cord, which I should not know how to get. The rest I will take care of."
And he took such good care, that the good woman was filled with a displeased surprise which was inexplicable. Why should she be displeased? Yet Mrs. Cord was quite "put about," as she said, when the things came home. They were simple things, indeed; a few muslins and ginghams and the like. But the ginghams were fine and beautiful, and the muslins of delicate patterns and excellent quality; and with them came a set of fine cambrick handkerchiefs, and ruffles, and lace, and a little parasol, and a light summer wrap; for Rotha had nothing to put on that made her fit to go to drive with her guardian. He had taken her, all the same, dressed as she was, but it seems he thought there must be a change in this state of things. Mrs. Cord was full of dissatisfaction; and when she took the dresses to Mrs. Marble to be made up, the two good women held a regular pow wow over them.
"Muslin like that!" cried the little mantua-maker with an expression of strong distaste. "Why that never cost less than fifty cents, Mrs. Cord! My word, it didn't."
"Just think of it! And for that girl, who never wore anything but sixpenny calico if she could get it. Men are the stupidest!—"
"That ashes-of-roses lawn is the prettiest thing I've seen yet. Mrs.
Cord, she don't want all these?"
"So I say," returned the nurse; "but I wasn't consulted. That aint all; you should have seen the ruffles, and the ribbands, and the pockethandkerchiefs; and then he took her somewhere, Stewart's, I shouldn't wonder, and got her gloves and gloves; and then a lovely Leghorn hat, with a brim wide enough to swallow her up. And now you must make up these muslins, and let us have one soon; for my master is in a hurry."
The little mantua-maker contemplated the muslins, and things generally.
"There's not the first sign o' black among 'em all! Not a line, nor a sprig, nor a dot."