had saluted her and attempted a rough congratulation. She had turned her back and walked away.
Elijah's conduct was the reverse of Glory's. His gloom was gone, and had made way for boisterous and demonstrative joy. His pride was roused, and he insisted on the marriage preparations being made on a liberal scale. He threw a purse into Mrs. Sharland's lap, and bade her spend it how she liked on Mehalah's outfit and her own. The old woman had been supremely happy in arranging everything, her happiness only dashed by the unsympathetic conduct of one chief performer in the ceremony, her daughter, whom she could not interest in any point connected with it.
There had been a little struggle that morning. Mehalah had drawn on her blue " Gloriana " jersey as usual, and Mrs. Sharland had insisted on its coming off. The girl had submitted after a slight resistance, and had allowed herself passively to be arrayed as her mother chose.
Elijah was dressed in a blue coat, with brass buttons, and knee-breeches. No one had seen him so spruce before.
"I say, dame," whispered Farmer Goppin to his wife, "the master of Red Hall is turning over a new leaf to-day."
"Maybe," she answered, "but I doubt it will be a blank one. Look at the girl. It won't be a gay[1] for him."
"Move on!" said Mrs. De Witt. "I'll keep the road."
Mrs. De Witt had come at Rebow's special request. She had put on for the occasion her silk dress, in which she had gone from home and been married. Her figure had altered considerably through age and maternity and the dress was now not a little too tight for her. Her hooking together had been a labour of difficulty, performed by Mrs. Sharland at Red Hall; it had been beyond her own unassisted powers, in the Pandora, when she drew on the ancient dress.
"Dear sackalive! " exclaimed Mrs. De Witt when she extracted the garment from the lavender in which it had lain, like a corpse in balm, for some five-and-twenty years, "I was a fool when I last put you on; and I won't fit myself out in you again for the same purpose, unless I am driven to it by desperate circumstances."
- ↑ Essex for "Picture."
