ere you may have hastily supposed she would find a new bonnet. Not at all. Such a supposition could only have arisen from a too-superficial [Ссылки могут видеть только зарегистрированные пользователи. ] acquaintance with the [Ссылки могут видеть только зарегистрированные пользователи. ] habits of the Dodson family. In this wardrobe Mrs. Pullet was seeking something small enough to be hidden among layers of linen — it was a door-key.
“You must come with me into the best room,” said Mrs. Pullet.
“May the children come too, sister?” inquired Mrs. Tulliver, who saw that Maggie and Lucy were looking rather eager.
“Well,” said aunt Pullet, reflectively, “it’ll perhaps be safer for ’em to come; they’ll be touching something if we leave ’em behind.”
So they went in procession along the bright and slippery corridor, dimly lighted by the semi-lunar top of the window which rose above the closed shutter; it was really quite solemn. Aunt Pullet paused and unlocked a door which opened on something still more solemn than the passage — a darkened room, in which the outer light, entering feebly, showed what looked like the corpses of furniture in white shrouds. Everything that was not shrouded stood with its legs upward. Lucy laid hold of Maggie’s frock, and Maggie’s heart beat rapidly.
Aunt Pullet half-opened the shutter and then unlocked the wardrobe, with a melancholy deliberateness which was quite in keeping with the funereal solemnity of the scene. The delicious scent of rose-leaves that issued from [Ссылки могут видеть только зарегистрированные пользователи. ] the wardrobe made the process of taking out sheet after sheet of silver paper quite pleasant to assist at, though the sight of the [Ссылки могут видеть только зарегистрированные пользователи. ] bonnet at last was an anticlimax to Maggie, who would have preferred something more strikingly preternatural. But few things could have been more impressive to Mrs. Tulliver. She looked all round it in silence for some moments, and then said emphatically, “Well, sister, I’ll never speak against the full crowns again!”
It was a great concession, and Mrs. Pullet felt it; she [Ссылки могут видеть только зарегистрированные пользователи. ] felt something was due to it.
“You’d like to see it on, sister?” she said sadly. “I’ll open the shutter a bit further.”
“Well, if you don’t mind taking off your cap, sister,” said Mrs. Tulliver.
Mrs. Pullet took off her cap, displaying the brown silk scalp with a jutting promontory of curls which was common to the more mature and judicious women of those times, and placing the bonnet on her head, turned slowly round, like a draper’s lay-figure, that Mrs. Tulliver might miss no point of view.
“I’ve sometimes thought there’s a loop too much o’ [Ссылки могут видеть только зарегистрированные пользователи. ] ribbon on this left side, sister; what do you think?” said Mrs. Pullet.
Mrs. Tulliver looked earnestly at the point indicated, and turned her head on one side. “Well, I think it’s best as it is; if you meddled with it, sister, you might repent.”
“That’s true,” said aunt Pullet, taking off the bonnet and looking at it contemplatively.
“How much might she charge you for that [Ссылки могут видеть только зарегистрированные пользователи. ] bonnet, sister?” said Mrs. Tulliver, whose mind was actively engaged on the possibility of getting a humble imitation of this chef-
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