The taste of Sarah had kept even pace with the decorations of her aunt;
and a dress, differing in no respect from the one just described, but
in material and tints, exhibited her imposing form to equal advantage.
The satin of her robe was of a pale bluish color. Twenty years did not,
however, require the screen that was prudent in forty, and nothing but
an envious border of exquisite lace hid, in some measure, what the satin
left exposed to view. The upper part of the bust, and the fine fall of
the shoulders, were blazing in all their native beauty, and, like the
aunt, the throat was ornamented by a treble row of pearls, to correspond
with which were rings of the same quality in the ears. The head was
without a cap, and the hair drawn up from the countenance so as to give
to the eye all the loveliness of a forehead as polished as marble and as
white as snow. A few straggling curls fell gracefully on the neck, and a
bouquet of artificial flowers was also placed, like a coronet, over
her brow.
Miss Singleton had resigned her brother to the advice of Dr. Sitgreaves,
who had succeeded in getting his patient into a deep sleep after
quieting certain feverish symptoms that followed the agitation of the
interview. The sister was persuaded, by the observant mistress of the
mansion, to make one of the party, and she sat by the side of Sarah,
differing but little in appearance from that lady, except in refusing
the use of powder on her raven locks, and that her unusually high
forehead and large, brilliant eyes gave an expression of thoughtfulness
to her features, that was possibly heightened by the paleness of
her cheek.
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