"Her
underclothes are all done, an' the quilts; the weddin'-dress ain't
bought yet, an' she's got to have a mantilla. Do you know Charlotte
ain't never wore that handsome mantilla she had when she was
expectin' to marry Barney?"
"Ain't she?"
"No, she ain't, nor her silk gown neither. I said all I darsed to. I
thought mebbe she or Sarah would offer; they both of 'em know how
hard it is to get anything out of Silas; but they didn't, an' I
wa'n't goin' to ask, nohow. I shall get a new silk an' a mantilla for
Rose, an' not be beholden to nobody, if I have to sell the spoons I
had when I was married."
"I don't s'pose they have much to do with," said Sylvia. She began to
gradually edge past her sister.
"Of course they haven't; I know that jest as well as you do. But if
Charlotte ain't goin' to get married she don't want any weddin'-gown
an' mantilla, an' she won't ever get married. She let Thomas Payne
slip, an' there ain't nobody else I can think of for her. If she
ain't goin' to want weddin'-clothes, I don't see why she an' her
mother would be any poorer for givin' hers away. 'Twouldn't cost 'em
any more than to let 'em lay in the chest. Well, I've got to go home;
it's supper-time. Where did you say you'd been, Sylvy?"
Sylvia was well past her sister; she pretended not to hear. "You
ain't been over for quite a spell," she called back, faintly.
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