The Little Colonel: Maid of Honor

A rainy day followed the lawn fete, such a steady pour that little / rivers ran down the window-panes, and the porches had to be abandoned. / But nobody lamented the fact that they were driven indoors. Rob and / Joyce began a game of chess in the library. Lloyd and Phil turned over / the music in the cabinet until they found a pile of duets which they / both knew, and began to try them, first to the accompaniment of the / piano, then the harp.

Mary, sitting in the hall where she could see both the chess-players and / the singers, waited in a state of bliss to be summoned to the / sewing-room. Only that morning it had been discovered that there was / enough pink chiffon left, after the bridesmaids' gowns were completed, / to make her a dress, and the seamstress was at work upon it now. So it / was a gay, rose-colored world to Mary this morning, despite the leaden / skies and pouring rain outside. Not only was she to have a dress, the / material for which had actually been brought from Paris, but she was to / have little pink satin slippers like the bridesmaids, and she was to / have a proud place in the wedding itself. When the bridal party came / down the stairs, it was to be her privilege to swing wide the gate of / roses for them to pass through.