d. A
charmin' thing, all green ribbons and red roses. I shall wear it
again, to my Pierre's weddin'. 'Tis for that I've been savin' it. And,
well, because a body has no need to wear out bonnets on this bit of
land in water. No."

But Angelique was a true woman; and once upon the subject of dress her
mind refused to be drawn thence. She recalled items of what had been
her own trousseau, ignoring Margot's ridicule of the clumsy Pierre as
a bridegroom, and even her assertion that: "I should pity his wife,
for I expect her ears would have to be boxed, also."

"Come yon. I've that I will show you. 'Tis your mother's own lovely
clothes. Just as she wore them here, and carefully folded away for you
till you needed them. Well, that is now, I suppose, if you're to be
let gad all over the earth, with as good a home as girl ever had right
here in the peaceful woods."

"Oh! show them to me, Angelique. Quick. Why have you never before? Of
course, I shall need them now. And, Angelique! That is some more of
the beautiful plan. The working out of the pattern. Else why should
there be the clothes here when I need clothes? Answer me that, good
Angelique, if you can."

"Pst. 'Twas always a bothersome child for questions. But answer one
yourself. If you had had them before would you have had them ready
now, and the pleasure of them? No. No, indeed. But come. The clothes
and then the churnin'. If that Pierre were here, 'twould not be my
arms would have to ache this night with the dash, dash, dashin'. No.
No, indeed, no. But come."

Alas! Of all the carefully preserved and dainty garments there was not
one which Margot could wear.

"Why, Angelique! What a tiny thing she must have been! I can't get
even my hand through the wrist of this sleeve. And look here. This
skirt is away up as short as my own. If I've to wear short ones I'll
not change at all. In the pictures, I've seen lovely ladies with
skirts on the ground and I thought that was the way I should look if I
ever went into the world."

"Eh? What? Lovely? You? Hmm. Lovely is that lovely does. Vanity is a
disgrace to any woman. Has not the master said that often and often?"

Margot flushed. She was not conscious of vanity, yet she did not
question Angelique's opinion. But she rallied.

"I don't think I should feel at all vain if I put on any of these
things. That is, if I could even get them on. I should all the time be
thinking how uncomfortable I was. Well, that's settled.