Lynette had her moments of dignity, and this was an occasion for stateliness.
“Vancie, don’t dare to speak to me like that! I’m in mourning.”
“In mourning! For whom?”
“Miss Eve’s mother, of course! Miss Eve is in mourning, and I know father puts on a black tie.”
“My dear, don’t be——”
“Vancie, I am going to wear this frock. You’re not a great friend of Miss Eve’s, like me. She’s the dearest friend in the world.”
The governess felt that the dress was eccentric, and yet that Lynette had a sentimental conviction that carried her cause through. Miss Vance happened to be in a tactless mood, and appealed to Gertrude Canterton, and to Gertrude the idea of Lynette going into mourning because a certain young woman had lost her mother was whimsical and absurd.
“Lynette, go and change that dress immediately!”
It was then that Canterton came out in his child. She was serenely and demurely determined.
“I must wear it, mother!”