“Oh, how pleasant, how beautiful,” she cried, skipping across the soft carpet to the warm fire blazing in the grate.  “A bay window, too, when I like them so much, and such handsome curtains and furniture.  I shall be happy here.”

But happy as she was, Katy could not help feeling tired, and she sank into one of the luxurious easy-chairs, wishing she could stay there all the evening, instead of going down to that formidable dinner with her new relations.  How she dreaded it, especially when she remembered that Mrs. Cameron had said there would be plenty of time to dress, a thing which Katy hated, the process was so tiresome, particularly to-night.  Surely, her handsome traveling dress, made in Paris, was good enough, and she was about settling in her own mind to venture upon wearing it, when Esther demolished her castle at once.

“Wear your traveling habit!” she exclaimed, “when the young ladies, especially Miss Juno, are so particular about their dinner costume?  There would be no end to the scolding I should get for suffering it.  So there’s no help, you see,” and she began good-naturedly to remove her mistress’ collar and pin, while Katy, standing up, sighed as she said; “I wish I was in Silverton to-night.  I could wear anything there.  What must I put on?  How I dread it!” and she began to shiver again.

Fortunately for Katy, Esther had been in the family long enough to know just what they regarded as proper, as by this means the dress selected, a delicate pearl-colored silk was sure to please.  It was very becoming to Katy, and having been made in Paris, was not open to criticism.  Esther’s taste was perfect, so that Katy was never over-dressed, and she was very simple and pretty this night, with the rich, soft lace around her neck and around her white, plump arms, where the golden bands were shining.

“Very pretty, indeed,” was Mrs. Cameron’s verdict when at half-past five she knocked at the door and then came in to see her daughter, kissing her cheek and stroking her head, wholly unadorned, except by the short, silken curls which could not be coaxed to grow faster than they chose, and which had sometimes annoyed Wilford.  They made his wife seem so young beside him.  Mrs. Cameron was annoyed, too, for she had no idea of a head, except as it was connected with a hairdresser, and her annoyance showed itself as she asked: 

“Did you have your hair cut on purpose?”

But when Katy explained, she answered, pleasantly: 

“Never mind; it is a fault which will mend every day, only it makes you look like a child.”

“I am eighteen and a half,” Katy said, feeling a lump rising in her throat, for she guessed that her mother-in-law was not quite pleased with her hair.

For herself, she liked it; it was so easy to brush and fix.  She should go wild if she had to submit to all Esther had told her of hairdressing and what it involved.