Mamselle Lovisa Lagerlöf used to dress the brides. Not all the girls in the parish who married came to her to be decked, only the daughters of the best peasant families. Some years there were two or three brides, and some none at all.
Formerly, when Mårbacka was a parsonage, it had been the duty of the pastor's womenfolk to deck the brides, especially those who were to be married in the church.
Mamselle Lovisa's mother and maternal grandmother and great-grandmother before her had performed this same service. It was an old custom which had been handed down.
She had inherited all the old bridal trumpery which in the course of time had accumulated at Mårbacka. She had a large old cupboard, in a drawer of which were treasured long strings of glass, coral, and amber beads, a collection of tortoise-shell combs that stood up eight inches from the head, and half-round pasteboard forms, covered either with stiff white satin or hand-painted flowers, in use at the period when coifs were worn.
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