A corps of servants from town had fairly swamped
Lucinda and twenty carpenters were putting up an extra addition to the
house in which to give the wedding room to spread. Nor was this all, for
Aunt Mary had turned a furniture man and an upholsterer loose with no
other limit than that comprised by the two words "_carte blanche_."
Mrs. Rosscott still continued to wait upon Aunt Mary, but another maid had
arrived to await upon Mrs. Rosscott. The latter had shed her black uniform
and bloomed forth in rose-hued robes. Mr. Stebbins was kept on tap from
dawn to dark and the checks flowed like water. Emissaries had been
despatched to New York to buy the young couple a suitable house and
furnish that also from top to bottom.
"Well, Arethusa," the aunt said to the niece when they met the morning
after her arrival, "I'm feelin' better 'n I was last time you were here."
"I'm so glad," yelled Arethusa.
"They'll live in New York and I'll live with them. As far as I've seen
there ain't no other place on earth to live. I'm goin' to get me a coat
lined with black-spotted white cat's fur and have my glasses put on a
parasol handle, and I'm going to have the collars and sleeves left out of
most of my dresses an' look like other people. I'm a great believer in
doin' as others do, an' Jack won't ever have no cause to complain that I
didn't take easy to city life."
Arethusa felt herself dumb before these revelations.
Later she was conducted to see the wedding presents, which were gorgeous.
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