Mrs. Freeman's maid keeps company with
my brother James--he's in the stables at Freeman's, you know, Lady
Mary--and she asked me in to look at the trousseau two days before the
wedding. I never saw such beautiful dresses--such hats--such
bonnets--such jackets and mantles. It was like going into one of those
grand shops at York, and having all the things in the shop pulled out
for one to look at--such silks and satins--and trimmed--ah! how those
dresses was trimmed. The mystery was how the young lady could ever get
herself into them, or sit down when she'd got one of them on.'
'Instruments of torture, Clara. I should hate such gowns, even if I were
going to marry a rich man, as I suppose Miss Freeman was.'
'Not a bit of it, Lady Mary. She was only going to marry a Bolton doctor
with a small practice; but her maid told me she was determined she'd get
all she could out of her pa, in case he should lose all his money and go
bankrupt. They said that trousseau cost two thousand pounds.'
'Well, Clara, I'd rather have my tailor gowns, in which I can scramble
about the ghylls and crags just as I like.
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