“No, but I want to know.”
Mrs. ¬ÝVanderpool gave a satisfied nod.
“Show her,” she said.
The dressmaker was on the edge of rebellion.
- ‚ÄúZora sews beautifully,‚Äù added Mrs. ¬ÝVanderpool.
Thus the beautiful cloth came to Zora’s room, and was spread in a glossy cloud over her bed. She trembled at its beauty and felt a vague inner yearning, as if some subtle magic of the woven web were trying to tell her its story.
She worked over it faithfully and lovingly in every spare hour and in long nights of dreaming.
Wilfully she departed from the set pattern and sewed into the cloth something of the beauty in her heart.
In new and intricate ways, with soft shadowings and coverings, she wove in that white veil her own strange soul, and Mrs. ¬ÝVanderpool watched her curiously, but in silence.
Meantime all things were arranged for a double wedding at Cresswell Oaks. As John and Mary Taylor had no suitable home, they were to come down and the two brides to go forth from the Cresswell mansion.
Accordingly the Taylors arrived a week before the wedding and the home took on a festive air. Even Colonel Cresswell expanded under the genial influences, and while his head still protested his heart was glad. He had to respect John Taylor’s undoubted ability; and Mary Taylor was certainly lovely, in spite of that assumption of cleverness of which the Colonel could not approve.