“And you think I must have Madame Dudevant,” said Lucy inquiringly. “She is such an extortionate creature; I could get Henrietta in the house for a couple of days—”
“For pity’s sake don’t think of Henrietta, Lucy,” said Emily; “there’s no use in getting new materials if she is to spoil them. And what signifies a few dollars more or less in the making; for after all it’s the fit and air of a dress that gives it all its effect. Dudevant asks rather more, perhaps, than others—but really she is worth it. She is the only person in town who knows how to do any thing.”
“That’s true,” said Lucy plaintively.
“What makes you sigh so, Lucy,” said her husband smiling, “over Madame Dudevant’s superiority?”
“Oh, that’s just Lucy,” said Emily laughing. “She always was so. She thinks any thing will do for her until it comes to the point, and then nothing but the best satisfies her. With all her scruples, she always ends where I begin. But then she has such a plaintive way of going to work, that she always thinks, and what is worse, you all agree with her, that she is so much more economical than I—”
“Now Emily,” said Lucy expostulatingly, “I am sure I would be glad to go as the ‘White Lady,’ if you and Tom would let me.”
“So you think, my dear—but I know how it would be; you would keep Henrietta for a week in the house botching up a dress, which, of course, would be a fright; and then, just at the last minute, you would come to the conclusion it would never do, and go off in a hurry to Dudevant’s to order something decent—and so, besides your dress, you would have your failure to pay for.”
Coolidge laughed outright at this picture of his wife’s economy, and said,
“Well, Lucy, as we can’t afford double expenses, I think you’ll have to give up what Emily calls your ‘failure.’ ”
“These ‘failures’ are mighty expensive things, let me tell you,” said Emily seriously; “and I’ll just give you this warning, Tom, your wife is very fond of them.”