Page:Milady at Arms (1937).pdf/141

 'Tis plain to be seen I must gi' up going to the sewing bee!"

"Nay—wait!" Mistress Ball spoke absently, her eyes fixed upon a dower chest which stood beneath a window. She moved over to it and threw up the chest Hd. "Wait!" Her voice was muffled, now, as she bent over the chest. "Mayhap we can find something here for ye!"

With rising hope, Sally watched her. She caught delightful glimpses of gay satins, of lovely velvets, of many ribbons wound neatly in rolls. Anything, it seemed, might come forth from that chest! And like an eager Cinderella, she stood there in her old torn gown while Mistress Ball, fairy godmotherlike, delved and pulled at a generation's outgrown clothing. At last, with a little triumphant exclamation, the lady's searching fingers found what they sought, and, straightening herself, she turned around.

But, oh, how Sally's heart dropped with disappointment, like dead ashes putting out the tiny flame of joy which had commenced to flicker there! The gift gown was a drab one, indeed, in her young eyes, of a strange shade of plum-colored silk! A dark, elderly kind of gown!

Mistress Ball nodded at her smilingly as she held the gown up. "Take off thy torn gown and try this on!" she commanded kindly. Tis an outgrown one o' daughter Ray's, and I ha' thought,