Aunt Betsy suggested a blue delaine and round cape, offering to get it herself, and actually purchasing the material with her own funds, saved from drying apples.  That would answer for one dress, Helen said, but not for the wedding; and she was becoming more and more undecided, when Morris came to the rescue, telling Katy of a young woman who had for some time past been his patient, but who was now nearly well and anxious to obtain work again.  She had evidently seen better days, he said; was very ladylike in her manner, and possessed of a great deal of taste, he imagined; besides that, she had worked in one of the largest shops in New York.  “As I am going this afternoon over to North Silverton,” he added, in conclusion, “and shall pass Miss Hazelton’s house, you or Helen might accompany me and see for yourself.”

It was decided that Helen should go, and about four o’clock she found herself ringing at the cottage over whose door hung the sign:  “Miss M. Hazelton, Fashionable Dressmaker.”  She was at home, so said the little slipshod girl who answered the ring, and in a few moments Helen was talking with Marian Hazelton, whose face showed signs of recent illness, but, nevertheless, very attractive, from its peculiarly sad expression and the soft liquid eyes of dark blue, which looked as if they were not strangers to tears.  At twenty she must have been strikingly beautiful; and even now, at thirty, few ladies could have vied with her had she possessed the means for gratifying her taste and studying her style.  About the mouth, so perfect in repose, there was when she spoke a singularly sweet smile, which in a measure prepared one for the low, silvery voice, which had a strange note of mournful music in its tone, making Helen start as it asked:  “Did you wish to see me?”

“Yes; Dr. Grant told me you were—­” Helen paused here, for though Marian Hazelton’s dress indicated poverty, the words “were wanting work” seemed at variance with her whole being, and so she changed her form of speech, and said instead:  “Told me you could make dresses, and I drove around with him to secure your services, if possible, for my sister, who is soon to be married.  We would like it so much if you could go to our house instead of having Katy come here.”

Marian Hazelton was needing work, for there was due more than three months’ board, besides the doctor’s bill, and so, though it was not her custom to go from house to house, she would, in this instance, accommodate Miss Lennox, especially as during her illness her customers had many of them gone elsewhere, and her little shop was nearly broken up.  “Was it an elaborate trousseau she was expected to make?” and she bent down to turn over some fashion plates lying upon the table.

“Oh, no! we are plain country people.  We cannot afford as much for Katy as we would like; besides, I dare say Mr. Cameron will prefer selecting most of her wardrobe himself, as he is very wealthy and fastidious,” Helen replied, repenting the next instant the part concerning Mr. Cameron’s wealth, as that might look like boasting to Miss Hazelton, whose head was bent lower over the magazine as she said:  “Did I understand that the gentleman’s name was Cameron?”