But Mary judged her scarcely in a
mood to be trusted with anything so ethereal; and begged
therefore that, as the dress had, of necessity, been in many
places little more than run together, and she knew its weak
points, she might, for that evening, be allowed the privilege of
dressing Mrs. Redmain. Hesper gladly consented; Folter left the
room; Mary, now at her ease, took her place; and presently, more
to Hesper's pleasure than Mary's surprise, for she had made and
fixed in her mind the results of minute observation before she
went, it was found that the dress fitted quite sufficiently well,
and, having confined it round the waist with a cincture of thin
pale gold, she advanced to her chief anxiety--the head-dress.
For this she had chosen such a doubtful green as the sky appears
through yellowish smoke--a sad, lovely color--the fair past
clouded with the present--youth not forgotten, but filmed with
age. They were all colors of the evening, as it strives to keep
its hold of the heavens, with the night pressing upon it from
behind. In front, above the lunar forehead, among the coronal
masses, darkly fair, she fixed a diamond star, and over it wound
the smoky green like a turbaned vapor, wind-ruffled, through
which the diamonds gleamed faintly by fits. Not once would she,
while at her work, allow Hesper to look, and the self-willed lady
had been submissive in her hands as a child of the chosen; but
the moment she had succeeded--for her expectations were more than
realized--she led her to the cheval-glass.
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